Fisheries committee  Could I add a final word on that? When you ask a question like that, I immediately start thinking of economics, and I think of the World Trade Organization. First, I'd like to mention that ecology in general—and biological invasion, which is somewhat of a sub-discipline of ecology in general—is still not a mature science.

Fisheries committee  They've developed regulations that are applied internationally in terms of that, because I believe they see the economics. They've seen the numbers. They understand that if they're regulated and if they're going to have to put in new systems for filtering water, etc., that will affect them in one country or another, it's better to be proactive, to be ahead of the game, to coordinate, and to show that good effort.

Fisheries committee  If I could add, I think that's the enforcement aspect I was referring to. I think the regulation structure is fine, but I know there has to be a mechanism of enforcement, so I'm not sure. Obviously, diffusing that information to the appropriate.... But you said you applied that yourself in certain cases?

Fisheries committee  I would just like to add briefly that I think the lamprey example is sort of a false hope, in some sense. I don't want people to always think there will be that kind of solution. It's a wonderful case story, where the biology really mattered and we were able to sleuth it out. On the other hand, I'd like to say there are promising things, especially with certain molecular approaches, and I think in the future we'll be able to use instruments that are less blunt, in terms of doing this.

Fisheries committee  Muy, muy importante.

Fisheries committee  No.

Fisheries committee  I just want to add something. In my view, the practicality of the process is fine. But what is crucial is to take steps at a political level. No one will do what they are supposed to do if there is no coordination between the federal and provincial governments, including municipalities and the people who live there.

Fisheries committee  What date is that?

Fisheries committee  There are two phases of CAISN. We're in our second phase now. If I could speak to the second phase, because I think that better answers your question, the scientists involved in the first phase sat down at one of our annual general meetings and discussed what we thought were deficits in our knowledge and what we thought were promising avenues for research that could be done at a national level in Canada.

Fisheries committee  All of those. In fact, I say I don't work on the Great Lakes, but I have projects in the central region, which includes the Great Lakes. I'm involved in a project with Dr. Ricciardi. I'm involved in a project with a DFO scientist in Burlington. We're taking conceptual.... We've networked in a true sense by taking people with different expertise.

Fisheries committee  Almost certainly.

Fisheries committee  I'd like not to answer the first question because I don't work in the Great Lakes, per se. I have not worked with Great Lakes DFO personnel, so it is hard for me to tell. I can say that on the east coast there are individuals who are making exceptional efforts in trying to get the information together, both at EML and at the Moncton lab.

Fisheries committee  I'd like to take the chance of saying.... And I don't want to put monitoring on to government; I think monitoring has a terrible reputation, unjustly deserved, because without that baseline it's very hard to work. I'm not saying that the university scientists should get to do the fun stuff and government scientists should do the drudgery year after year, but the government is there year after year.

Fisheries committee  I agree entirely, and I could direct you to some programs that I think are doing very good jobs of that.

Fisheries committee  You're asking specifically about the P.E.I. mussel situation?