Fisheries committee  Yes.

Fisheries committee  I'm a member of the Atlantic round table on lobster. We have begun an initiative to try to get a steering committee that will move forward on generic marketing of lobster Atlantic-wide and also on eco-certification. It is the feeling that we cannot afford to lose any markets. Several markets have told us that without eco-certification, they will not handle the product.

Fisheries committee  My position is that the lobster initiative needs support. I am not familiar with the long-term work of CCFI. I know they do good work. I've only been involved in this lobster round table for a short time, and they've done good work for us. Right now they are the people who are leading the initiative to try to get the industry to deal with the market challenges.

Fisheries committee  Well, for a decision-making process in a competitive fishery—and you may have heard of the study that came out recently that there'll be no competitive fisheries after 2050. They'll all be gone, except ITQ, and in my opinion the reason is that an ITQ has an owner and he can make a business decision.

Fisheries committee  Okay. Well, then I'll skip over this. In the short term, the government has produced a stimulus package. For the short term, we'd like to see a new patrol boat. Our patrol boat has gone. They're talking about replacing it with a 110-foot boat based in Dartmouth. That will not work.

Fisheries committee  I thank you for this opportunity to meet all you gentlemen. I haven't met very many before, other than Mr. Weston, so thank you for coming to us. I am president of the Fundy North Fishermen's Association. It represents fishermen from St. Martins to Deer Island and along the north shore of the Bay of Fundy.