Fisheries committee  Thank you.

Fisheries committee  No, “integrated management” is a term that's used in the oceans directorate for involving all stakeholders in planning ocean uses. So the ESSIM, eastern Scotian Shelf integrated management, that I referred to is the model or the pilot that's the furthest ahead. There's the Placen

Fisheries committee  Yes, and our point is that it's a sequence of decisions leading up to that point. Why don't we have a plan? The other thing we should remember from that decision--and maybe this is something the committee might want to remember--is that it was publicly announced that the results

Fisheries committee  And we're looking forward to seeing the analysis—

Fisheries committee  — and it's well into December

Fisheries committee  There are two good examples, and I mentioned them briefly. It's in our report on ecosystem-based management. This is a report we commissioned from Dr. Andrew Rosenberg, an internationally renowned fisheries expert. We had him do two reports, one on bycatch and then on what we do

Fisheries committee  It's a contributor. The first thing is I think everyone's agreed now that overfishing was the cause. We got to a certain state through overfishing. There are other factors. We've heard some of them--predators, environmental factors that are conspiring to inhibit recovery. Bycatch

Fisheries committee  Whether that fishery was open or not, it was done on the wrong basis in the absence of a plan. You'll remember what happened prior to the opening of that fishery. It was recommended that northern cod be listed under the Species at Risk Act, and the department, the minister, recom

Fisheries committee  There are a couple of points there. One, I would not say industry supports protected areas. In fact, I just want to point out something from our recent press release on this. What I said was: Industry has legitimate concerns about how conservation measures will affect them, an

Fisheries committee  What we have now in our analysis is a series of options out there. I know where a number of the key conservation values are from our mapping, our GIS work, and this analytical work. That doesn't mean each of those conservation value areas has to become an MPA. What I'm talking ab

Fisheries committee  No, we don't. Our position on this recent decision by the government not to support that high-seas moratorium was that it's unregulated fishing. Canada was on the international task force on IUU, which is “Illegal, unregulated, unreported” fishing. We have all the commitments fo

Fisheries committee  Very quickly, I think we have done what you've said and we've done all we can. In other words, we have not opposed the seal hunt. The fact that the world's leading conservation organization doesn't oppose it on conservation grounds says something about our science. We do look at

Fisheries committee  I wish I could answer that. We have a commitment to 10% by 2012, and we know what the date is now. We have a few postage stamps of protected areas in our oceans—about half a percent. The interesting thing—and it's the result of the work we've done and of taking on the best knowl

Fisheries committee  Let me try. I think I understand. Our position on the seal hunt and our understanding of it, socially and economically, is that it is a legitimate harvest activity. It has a long, cultural history, as do many of the fisheries. It's a legitimate harvest and it's sustainable. And

Fisheries committee  I have no comment on that. I'm dismayed when I hear inaccurate information anywhere. I know it's such a volatile issue. As far as I'm concerned, I respect the right of animal welfare and animal rights groups to have their opinions. I don't share many of their opinions. We are a c