Fisheries committee  As a rule, in this particular port the selling of lobster right off the boat hasn't been a common practice. One of the reasons is that fresh-caught lobsters, at least in this area, generally have a gut full of herring or mackerel or some other bait, and generally if these lobsters are held for a couple of days, they eliminate that product from their gut and the taste tends to be a lot better.

Fisheries committee  Mr. Lévesque, I'm not sure I can respond directly, but I will try. First of all, I think the private sector, the people who are handling the marketing of lobsters, the people who do that end of the industry, probably should be required to bear the cost of advertising, the cost of promoting to a certain degree, and the cost of marketing in a general way, much as any other commodity producer or somebody who manufactures or processes something would be responsible for that in the long run.

Fisheries committee  Okay. Sorry, I thought that was the buzzer or I was being bombed. Can you hear, sir? Okay. A little outfit like ours, we were developing this and marketing this in Europe. We did this without government interference. Sometimes I think the people on the ground floor, in the field, are much better at marketing their product than the government.

Fisheries committee  I'll try to address that, Mr. Byrne. I was in Europe at ANUGA, at the big international fish show in the late 1980s when I was really starting to get involved with this business. I was also directing Collins Seafood, which at the time was the only pound retail-wholesale operation.

Fisheries committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Weston and members of the committee. I'm very pleased to be here to address the committee and hopefully add a bit of an insight into things to do with lobster. I am a licensed lobster fisherman here in Alma. My boat is over at the wharf most of the summer and all fall.