Fisheries committee  It could be partly through dockside monitoring or observer data.

Fisheries committee  I'm not sure.

Fisheries committee  In the gulf, it's Atlantic halibut, as well as, I believe, witch flounder and some other groundfish species like witch flounder that have rebuilding plans in place.

Fisheries committee  The department has talked about separator panels, which we've used in other parts of Atlantic Canada. They do have impacts on the catch rates, but we are very much focused on fishing redfish in deeper waters, where, I understand, there are fewer bycatch issues.

Fisheries committee  I'm not a scientific expert, but it certainly seems that in the gulf the waters are warming and the ecosystem is changing. Just in terms of what I hear on the ground, the fish in unit 1 is not the same kind of fish or does not look the same as what existed many years ago. As we know, it's much smaller.

Fisheries committee  There are definitely certain fisheries where seal predation is an important contributor to the fact that they're not recovering, such as cod in the area of 4T. In terms of redfish, I haven't seen anything from the science advice that would lead me to believe that seals are eating redfish, but I'm not an expert in that area.

Fisheries committee  I would say a bigger concern for us is the length of time that it has taken not only this minister but her predecessors to make a decision on allocations in this fishery, which has been quite destabilizing for our members, who, as I've said, have continued to invest in this fishery.

Fisheries committee  Very much so.

Fisheries committee  In terms of the work that's been done on markets for redfish, that's been done largely by the Atlantic Groundfish Council. We've had some funding from the federal government to do that, which started in 2020. We were going down one sort of path in 2020. We were expecting the fish to be larger, and we were looking at trying to develop a market in Europe, trying to position ourselves differently than European redfish were, where there's really a lack of consumer confidence in Europe because of the way they've been mismanaged.

Fisheries committee  The offshore sector has always wanted to protect its historical quotas, whether for redfish or other fisheries. This has always been a priority for the members of the Atlantic Groundfish Council. I haven't had any discussions about redfish allocations, because when I was at the department, we were really focused on reopening the fishery based on scientific advice.

Fisheries committee  As I've indicated, we've always had access and harvested unit 1 redfish, so we already have all of our employees and all of our plants in place to continue and to take advantage of the opening of the commercial fishery. We're not anticipating new employees or new processing plants or new vessels.

Fisheries committee  I don't think so. The department has control systems in place to make sure that this kind of activity doesn't happen. There will always be participants who will try to cheat a little, but I don't think it's a bigger problem in the redfish fishery than in other fisheries.

Fisheries committee  I'll say two things. In terms of quotas, we would be happy with an authorized catch rate of 25,000 tonnes, but we understand that, for other participants, this fishery may not be as profitable and interesting if that rate is not higher. Our position is therefore very flexible in this respect.

Fisheries committee  You've raised a lot of points.

Fisheries committee  I have a few comments on what you just said. The deep-sea fleet fishing practices of 30 years ago no longer exist. They've evolved a lot. So I don't think it's reasonable to compare fishing in 2024 with fishing in 1980. It's completely different today. Our members are adopting sustainable fishing practices and have no interest in not doing so.