Fisheries committee  I don't have with me the specific P.E.I. season. In terms of the general rules with respect to cod in the gulf region, it is pretty broad. There's not a license required but there are management rules depending on conservation. There's a limit of 15 per day or—this is ground fish generally—15 per day of which no more than 5 can be cod.

Fisheries committee  I'll start and maybe, Alain, I'll ask you to speak. I don't know if you know about mortality rates. I think you're referring to the charter fishery for tuna, a really interesting development—

Fisheries committee  I spoke in my opening remarks about new opportunities for the recreational fishery, about new developments, and about making sure that we're getting more economic value out of the fishery. There's no question that it would seem that the charter fisheries are not just for tuna. We're seeing it for lobster, for cod, and for other fisheries.

Fisheries committee  Yes. We're still working on management rules for it. That said, we have very strict management rules for the tuna fishery and the charter fishery. We have daily catch limits, limits on how many hookups you can have—those types of things. What we don't know is how much is charged by the individual tour operator; that's up to them.

Fisheries committee  We'd have to get back to you. We do have statistics on the recreational fishery. I think in terms of the commercial fishery, the figures that I gave you—around $2 billion in landed value and $4-point-something billion in terms of total value—that includes some commercial inland, but very little commercial inland.

Fisheries committee  I'll speak a little bit to the question, and I'll ask Alain to speak a little bit about what we do in freshwater science right now. It has often been a discussion with the provinces. As I said, fisheries is a federal jurisdiction. The reality is that we have formal and informal arrangements with provinces.

Fisheries committee  I have two points. One is, you're absolutely right, I did say commercial livelihood. The lodges and a number of businesses depend fundamentally on the recreational fishery. Second, it depends how you want to refer to the commercial total value. I don't know that anybody has ever done a comparison with that $8 billion, because that $8 billion includes travel costs, etc.

Fisheries committee  I would say two or three things. Number one, it's difficult, and I said this in the remarks, to tease out what we actually do. In anticipation of today's discussion, we said, what do we spend on recreational fisheries? The challenge is when we do the science stock assessment for salmon, it supports both.

Fisheries committee  I think there were two fundamental questions there. One is, what's the comparison between what we do in groundfish cod specifically in Newfoundland and elsewhere, and the other is what we think about a recreational licence regime. It is different in different regions and in different areas.

Fisheries committee  Thanks for the question. I'll start, but I'll ask Alain to add. Just in terms of Atlantic salmon, as the member has pointed out, the advisory committee has been announced and is getting under way. We are seeing significant reductions. We had a commercial fishery in this fishery previously, which was closed in 1998.

Fisheries committee  Merci. Thank you very much. It is a pleasure for us to be here to provide some background on recreational fisheries in Canada. We understand that you're interested in that issue and looking at doing a study on it. We'll speak to it, as well as to the role that Fisheries and Oceans Canada plays in the management of recreational fisheries.

Fisheries committee  Sure. Thanks, Deputy. I'll just add that in terms of the Pacific Salmon Foundation, you know they used to get one dollar out of every six from the conservation stamp. They now get six, so they get the whole thing. It is an extra $1 million for them. In addition to the restoration work, they're on the cutting edge.

Fisheries committee  We have these going on in many different parts across the country. We have a number of candidate sites that are moving forward. The one that you are speaking about is one. We can probably get more details in terms of that specific one, but we do have activity moving forward. We've identified some priority areas and we already have marine protected areas established.

Fisheries committee  We've actually had, I think, some success in terms of creating marine protected areas, but it does take time. The effort to create marine protected areas starts with an assessment of what science we have about ocean spaces writ large, so there's science work done on what are called EBSAs—ecologically and biologically significant areas.

Fisheries committee  In terms of bluefin tuna, the decision with respect to the total allowable catch on bluefin tuna is made by ICCAT, which is an international body dealing with tuna and tuna-like species. Canada is one of 49 contracting parties that participate in that. A recovery plan was put in place in the 1990s for this species.