Fisheries committee  Fishermen prefer to work. Fishermen are fishermen. They fish. That's what they do. I think that in some cases we do need support programs to get us through a rough patch, but I think in this case, we need a little bit of both. We need to let fishermen with low-impact fishing practices go out there and continue fishing.

Fisheries committee  Definitely, to the extent that it is possible to rationalize part of the fleet and the fishing effort. In my opinion, it is the seiners that should be rationalized. As Ms. Giffin said a few minutes ago, in my view, the fact that part of the fish stock is very small fish indicates the direct impact of seine fishing on it.

Fisheries committee  At the time, under the Atlantic lobster sustainability measures program, the federal government provided a third of the funding and the industry provided the remaining two thirds, thanks to loans from the provinces involved, in some cases, depending on the regions where the program was in place.

Fisheries committee  I think we can get back to a small-scale bait fishery for mackerel or herring. The amount of effort is very limited compared to some of the effort that's being put in place by the seiners, so some of that needs to come back online. It's also having more access to different alternatives.

Fisheries committee  Sure. In a nutshell, I guess there were three prongs to it. One is that back in the day in the lobster industry in the southern gulf, there were too many participants in the lobster fishery for the amount of lobster available, so there was a need to reduce the number of active participants.

Fisheries committee  The cost is very significant when you buy mackerel from international markets. I mentioned in my presentation that just over the last year, we've seen an increase of about 35% in the cost of bait in terms of mackerel, and this was with the freezers already full this year from mackerel from last year, so what is it going to be next year when our local mackerel stocks are not used to replenish these local freezers?

Fisheries committee  That's a good question. There was absolutely no consultation in terms of what kind of aid program could be put in place. The Maritime Fishermen's Union, along with our colleagues from the PEIFA and other associations, met with the minister's office—with the minister herself and with higher DFO officials as well—to talk about getting this closure at the last minute.

Fisheries committee  That is an excellent question. I will ask my colleagues to answer that as well. From what I know, there were some meetings after the fact, after the moratorium was announced, in March. There were discussions between senior officials from Ottawa and their counterparts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, in the United States.

Fisheries committee  When fishers are on the water, they can observe when the fish are close to our shores, throughout the year. That is one of the greatest benefits. This can also indicate the abundance of fish, and also gives us an idea when the fish will be leaving the shores. Right now, we have no idea what is happening on the water, except for what we hear from fishers who are on the water fishing for other species.

Fisheries committee  Who wants to take that one?

Fisheries committee  Well, I think I've used the comparison to the ALSM program, which was a success in our lobster industry a few years back. I think there is potential to maybe look into some parts of our fleet that may need some rationalization, so maybe making less effort and leaving more fish to the others who are remaining in the industry.

Fisheries committee  Yes, there are—

Fisheries committee  Yes.

Fisheries committee  I may share this answer with Mr. Ferguson here, but we've heard reports all across the spring and the summer and especially fall where there seem to be shifts in the patterns of distribution. Small mackerel are seen in some times of the year where we're not used to seeing them at that time, but also much larger mackerel schools are coming in close to shore later in the summer, especially in late fall.

Fisheries committee  I would just add that without any fishing activity on the water, we've lost a significant amount of science capability just this year. What we're seeing are observations, but at the end of the day, that's not a science protocol. We would need to have people on the water full time to do an actual study of what we're seeing and what changes are going on in the ecosystem around climate change.