Fisheries committee  Thank you for your question, Mr. Cormier.

Fisheries committee  Thank you for your question. In some cases, we do have estimates. That said, there are a lot of uncertainties. These are rough estimates. In the case of mackerel, the information is found in the stock assessments we are in the process of publishing. Similar studies have been done in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Fisheries committee  Seals are opportunistic predators, so they eat a lot of other species. By our estimates, crab and lobster are not seals' main prey. Again, there is a lot of uncertainty in this type of analysis. It must be noted that a number of other predators have seen their populations rise over the same period, including tuna and gannets.

Fisheries committee  I'm not clear on the question. As I mentioned at the seal summit, the analysis is ongoing. What was provided for the parliamentary question was a list of ongoing analysis. We have taken measures to accelerate the pace of the—

Fisheries committee  Mr. Chair, I agree that predation in general is very significant orders of magnitude compared to harvesting. As I mentioned earlier, there are many other predators. Some predators have more impact in terms of consumption, from our estimates.

Fisheries committee  What we're saying is it's different to be consuming versus having a predictable effect on the growth of the population. My colleague, Atef Mansour, could provide more information on these assessments.

Fisheries committee  I would add that the resource assessment, including the funding and expertise, is allocated nationally. It's a team that works collectively. We have the benefit of collaborating with a number of other stakeholders to help us in our endeavour. For example, the Arctic work was a recent survey that we're analyzing right now for walruses.

Fisheries committee  Yes, there is ongoing collaboration, as I mentioned, especially in the Arctic. We collaborate for science and decision-making with the wildlife board. It helps us design the sampling, contributes to the analysis and then helps make a recommendation for the harvest decision. Similarly, we invite indigenous traditional knowledge elders for collaboration when possible.

Fisheries committee  Yes, in the sciences sector, we make sure we are doing all the studies and all the necessary stock assessments to show that it is a sustainable hunt and that it is an available resource. We are also doing certain scientific studies so we can be confident of the humane aspect of the hunt.

Fisheries committee  Over the last five years, for example, we have dedicated about $1 million to seal science annually—

Fisheries committee  It's money that we allocate internally within the science budget—

Fisheries committee  It's money from our ongoing budget for marine mammals, for example, that we allocate to seal studies. We focus on supporting the science advice for decisions on the seal harvest. We focus on supporting the science advice for the fish stocks as well—for example, when we develop the rebuilding plans for the stocks, looking at all the information that's available to be able to assist with what the role of predation is, among other causes of natural mortalities, in the forecast for the stocks.

Fisheries committee  Yes, we can provide that information. If I understood well, the question is—

Fisheries committee  All our projections and estimates of natural mortality are in the public domain. We publish all our science assessments. In most cases, we don't have specific information on seals, except a few stocks in the southern gulf, where we have been able to establish a cause and effect relationship with the grey seal.

Fisheries committee  Yes, it is the very essence of stock assessments: they are based on work done in the field, inventories taken, and research done. In our stock assessment processes, we also invite fishers and people who are on the water to provide us with information and tell us what they have observed, to help us interpret the data collected.