Fisheries committee  Some of the work, as I said, that we're going to be doing on marine mammals is focused on whales. We'll be looking at how many there are, both in the north and on each of our coasts, but as you said, we'll also have more money in the future to spend on seal research to make sure

Fisheries committee  In general—I recognize we're probably short on time here—our policy is that we want to work with anyone to help advance shared research goals. I'm familiar with the project you're referring to and I know we've had some productive discussions recently about how we can work better

Fisheries committee  We have in the past, through the national contaminants advisory group, given a small contract to work with Vancouver Aquarium on a specific research topic. I don't think I could relate off the top of my head what the title of that research topic was. We want to work with resear

Fisheries committee  I'm certainly not a cetacean noise expert, so I can't talk about the specifics, but in general I think you'd find that most scientists would agree that it makes sense for there to be a field and laboratory component to research. Depending on the specific question, you might need

Fisheries committee  Okay. Perfect.

Fisheries committee  I'll admit that the folks you have in front of you tend to have more of an east coast emphasis, just by virtue of the geography of the scientists we're here with today, but that's not to say that we don't have a significant investment in new research dollars going to B.C. I can't

Fisheries committee  That's a very specific project question, so I'll ask Blair, just because he happens to be from the Maritimes region, if he has any information he could share with us on that.

Fisheries committee  In terms of the information that was available at the library in Mont-Joli that you referred to, my understanding is that the information has all been digitized. It is now available electronically. I will say that with the new investments, we are looking at future skill sets. W

Fisheries committee  I think it will make us more present. I think that with more people and more resources, we'll have the ability to physically be in places where we were challenged to be in the past, be that domestically in terms of participating in advisory committee meetings or with the fishing

Fisheries committee  Of the 135 positions, five will be oriented toward fresh water and 130 to the ocean type of research, to reflect the fact that we have $1.5-million envelope for fresh water and approximately a $40-million envelope for ocean science.

Fisheries committee  How I would characterize it is that there is a lot of work that could be done on fresh water, absolutely, and $1.5 million isn't going to address every freshwater issue across the country. Recognizing that we received that envelope of funding, we tried to be strategic and think a

Fisheries committee  I suggest that you give a little bit of an overview of the type of work that we're doing and planning in that regard, and then, if there's time, I'd offer some comments.

Fisheries committee  It is.

Fisheries committee  Thank you for the question. In general, these researchers are going to be focused on the types of information we'll need in order to select good marine protected areas in the future. However, because we don't know exactly where those areas are going to be, at this point we can't

Fisheries committee  Thank you.