Fisheries committee  Another point is that the Americans swear by V-notching in protecting larger females, and the Canadians for the most part swear at it rather than swear by it. It's very difficult to enforce, because of neighbouring LFAs. As you mentioned, if one group has one style, such as protecting females by V-notching, and others release them, and others catch them and bring them in, who are we saving the lobsters for?

Fisheries committee  Not to pat ourselves on the back, but I think we've covered most or all of the issues. We didn't put enough emphasis, I think, on the economic sustainability pillar. When we looked at sustainability in lobster fisheries, we identified four pillars of sustainability. The ecology or biology part is number one, plus the social, economics, and institutional parts.

Fisheries committee  I think we've covered every part that should have been covered. I don't think we avoided discussing the tough issues. I think the quota situation is one that is a quick rationalization plan that involves industry buyout, and it's one that fishermen don't want to talk about, but we talked about it.

Fisheries committee  Thank you very much for that question. You can tell the difference between a male and a female lobster, but you have to flip it upside down. You have to physically see it, so the lobster has to come up in the trap first in order for you to determine the sex. You have to flip it upside down.

Fisheries committee  Yes, and it's alive.

Fisheries committee  Yes. Every lobster has to be handled--

Fisheries committee  --individually. You're right. It's easy to tell the difference between male and female, number one, but we recommend a window. You call it--

Fisheries committee  --a slot. We call it the window. If a lobster doesn't reach a certain size, then you throw it back over, and it survives. They use that in various places in Atlantic Canada. What we're saying is that in areas where you're not close to your 50% mature, we strongly advise that you allow for those larger females to stay in the water.

Fisheries committee  The risk is higher, even from 2007. Today what's scary is that what we predicted was that if the costs of doing business, like the cost of fuel, etc., were higher, and if the exchange rate came to almost par with the U.S.... It's a perfect storm of what happened to the fishery. The prices going down and the economic situation globally all make the situation graver than what we said in 2007.

Fisheries committee  I'm sorry.

Fisheries committee  What we say in the vision statement is that the lobster fishery belongs to Canada. The lobsters belong to Canada.

Fisheries committee  Thank you very much. That is a good question and a very pertinent one. The answer regarding the minister's response is that we did receive a “thank you very much for your report” type of answer, but we have not yet received a detailed explanation of what will be approved or not.

Fisheries committee  I am not sure where that is. I am not certain at this point, because it's not something we debate or discuss afterwards. We just provide the advice, and it's a stand-alone report. However, we're writing another report now on herring, so we did ask, because we'd like to know if there's somewhere or somehow we can improve our reporting and the manner in which we provide advice.

Fisheries committee  Yes, it is correct. Donald explained what happens in his area, and it works well for him and his group. One of the situations where licence buyout works is in small groups. His region is divided into little zones, “zonettes“ if you like. That is one of the reasons it works. As well, it is not just a question of the government buying back the licences and then leaving the fishermen on their own.

Fisheries committee  I don't want to drop the minimum legal size. I have distributed one that says “Percentage of lobsters which reproduce below the minimum legal size”. You have that chart in front of you. The top number you'll see if you go up and across is that 83 millimetres is the legal size and 90 millimetres is the size at which 50% of the females are mature.