Fisheries committee  Thank you.

Fisheries committee  I would add that this is certainly the view at a time when prices are low. The challenge is that when prices are high, there may be a different view.

Fisheries committee  Good question. My colleagues are looking at the table, so I think they're expecting me....

Fisheries committee  Thanks for the comment. It's very instructive to take a look at the FRCC report, the Fisheries Resource Conservation Council, of 2007. It actually said that we should be looking at quotas or IQs, and then said that we should look at other mechanisms such as TURFs, which basically would determine that each group has a different area where they have exclusive use.

Fisheries committee  We'll have to get back to you on that. I've seen the numbers, but I don't want to quote them as a percentage of the economy. What we can say is that it's a billion-dollar industry. It's the most significant fishery economically in Canada, not just in Atlantic Canada. There are approximately 10,000 participants in that fishery.

Fisheries committee  I'll start with what you raised as part of this, the issue of a quota system. We've seen—you know this—from time to time recommendations. The last FRCC report actually recommended, I think it was in 2007, that we move to a quota system. There's not a lot of love for that in the inshore fishing industry.

Fisheries committee  You've seen ministers say, look, we're going to work with fishermen, and as you've heard Adam say here, we're interested in working with fishermen in terms of what they want to do. Currently the fisheries are in a healthy status, as we've said, so you know, hopefully...and I think we haven't heard much about going to quota systems, I would say, recently.

Fisheries committee  You talked about a precipitous decrease.

Fisheries committee  We have a number of things that we use. We go with landing slips, and then there are mandatory log books and we ask people to record what they're catching. I'll highlight one other thing, which we do with the FSRS, the Fishermen Scientist Research Society. We provide a number of fish—I think it's 180 or something like that across Atlantic Canada—with two to five extra traps each, and we make those different types of traps so they capture everything.

Fisheries committee  That's a good question. What we're seeing right now is, year after year, year-class strengths. We're actually seeing good recruitment every single year and, in fact, the fishery depends on it. If you're actually taking out 60% or 70% of the legally available fish and the fish that can actually reproduce themselves, you need to have good recruitment.

Fisheries committee  It's area 40. There are lobster areas across Atlantic Canada. There are a grand total of 41. We probably should have brought a map that shows the areas, but just off southwest Nova Scotia, there's an area—it's not huge—called area 40. Of all 41 lobster fishing areas, I believe it's the only one that is not actually open to fishing.

Fisheries committee  I don't know the answer to that. I know that we've definitely had significant ups and downs. If you look back at history, I don't remember exactly when, but about 100 years ago it fell off. What we don't know is whether the people stopped fishing it or whatever. We could get you more detail on that.

Fisheries committee  I wouldn't say that. We'll check to see if that's the case. We've certainly had ups and downs.

Fisheries committee  I'll ask Adam to speak to what we could do in terms of market pricing. What I would say is that the bottom line is to ensure that the stocks are there so that we can continue to have this discussion, as opposed to the alternative discussion, which wouldn't be quite as good. But in terms of the specific question, Adam, can you speak to it?

Fisheries committee  In terms of temperature, I think the standard view is that one of the reasons lobster has done as well as it has is the current temperature regime in the Atlantic. That's actually had a positive impact. But things are changing more rapidly than they had before, and studies are ongoing on temperature and acidification.