Fisheries committee  To see if a prawn is legal, we do a millimetre measurement, either off the telson, which is part of the tail, or on the spike coming off it's face. I forget what it's called. I have no interest in keeping small prawns. Why take prawns that are going to be more valuable later? I don't know.

Fisheries committee  I'm a smaller freezer vessel, but I can hold my product for probably 10 days for about 5,500 lbs., and that is not a big vessel. There are definitely bigger boats out there with way longer holding times, where someone could come along at any time and inspect that product.

Fisheries committee  No. We all go through the same process of grading and adhering to the conditions of the licence. They are able to stay on the grounds longer, but the process for making sure we have legal prawns is the same in the larger boats.

Fisheries committee  It would be impossible. I'm sure I could probably arrange with the fish company to come to take the export prawns, but without tubbing I have no way to access a local market. I'm pigeon-holed into exporting only. I was extremely lucky that I had lots of local people in Campbell River who wanted to buy prawn tubs off me, because it was so much more valuable than my export market prawns.

Fisheries committee  It will be the illegal sales.

Fisheries committee  No, not that I'm aware of. There's only one reason I can think of for this coming up. If a tub is illegal, whether it's rec, FSC or commercial, it's really easy to regulate. However, if that's the concern and it's happening now, it's pretty easy to figure out who's going to fill that market if you take away the legal tub sales.

Fisheries committee  No prior warnings for me: It came as quite a shock.

Fisheries committee  Thank you for this opportunity to speak today. My name is James Lawson. I'm president of the United Fishermen and Allied Workers' Union-Unifor, a representative of the Prawn Industry Caucus and a prawn fisherman. DFO's mandate includes maintaining the sustainability of fisheries and working with fishers to enable continued prosperity from fish and seafood.