Fisheries committee  Back when it started, you could get into fishing and there was no cost. For 25¢ you got a licence and you went fishing. That's where the gears came from today. There were just too many. A lot of people get out over the years, but--

Fisheries committee  To answer that truthfully, everywhere else where there was an increase has probably seen catches rising. We didn't, because as I spoke about earlier, when this all started is when all the gear started being bought and brought into the area. I guess the fishermen in our area still aren't sure whether the size increase is doing them any good or not.

Fisheries committee  No. Each year, for the first few years, we kept declining in our catches, but the size increases were going up.

Fisheries committee  I wouldn't say all of it, probably, but I guess if we were in a better position to absorb it, we would be looking at it differently.

Fisheries committee  Mostly, but we don't believe that if you took five fishermen out of the system the remaining group.... You're not going to catch every lobster they were catching. You're going to catch a percentage of them, but you won't catch them all, so there's going to be more staying in the water.

Fisheries committee  First of all, I'm a member of a co-op. I think those questions are probably more suited for our management, because we trust them to be working on those kinds of things for us, to get the best. Whether there's more out there I don't really know, but I'm sure there is. It seems to me there are always new products and new ways of doing it coming up.

Fisheries committee  Yes.

Fisheries committee  Seals are probably one of the biggest factors, yes. We have seen that in the groundfishery. That's almost totally wiped out, and we believe it's the seals. We stopped fishing in 1992 for groundfish, and it's pretty much been a moratorium since. Today, the spawning biomass is about 90% less than it was in 1992, and the only answer they can give us is the seals.

Fisheries committee  I don't know. I guess that's why I'm a fisherman. Maybe I'll let Jim tackle that one.

Fisheries committee  Yes.

Fisheries committee  Good question. I don't know. We just keep working at it, hoping, I guess, for some help to straighten things out. As I say, we've been working through them for a number of years and not much has changed. I said 252 fishermen in P.E.I. There are also 604 in New Brunswick sharing the same zone with us.

Fisheries committee  What I said earlier is an immediate buyout of licences to reduce the effort. As I said, we've probably doubled or tripled the effort in the area in the last little while, and I don't think any small measures can fix it. The only way we see it is the reduction of at least a third of the fleet to make it viable for those who stay.

Fisheries committee  I don't really know a whole lot about it, but from what I hear, most fishermen in the area don't seem to agree with it. They don't think it's a good step. I can't really say yes or no, but I've heard that in some places where they do it they end up with some disease in the lobsters on account of it.

Fisheries committee  We come from Tignish, P.E.I.

Fisheries committee  Since 1974.