Fisheries committee  You ask how important departmental scientists are in this enterprise and whether we could enhance that in some way. Right now the DFO scientists are very key in many issues related to recreational fisheries, and I gave a few examples earlier, but I'll repeat that. A lot of our

Fisheries committee  On the recreational scale?

Fisheries committee  That's a good question. I think that exercising some leadership and assembling partners around critical issues is increasing our national and international visibility. We can play a leadership role in some very specific cases. That is mainly what I see. In terms of investment, w

Fisheries committee  We did some research in collaboration with partners on the release mortality for tuna.

Fisheries committee  When we have the expertise to contribute, we will explore these partnerships. Yes.

Fisheries committee  Yes, as Kevin said, it's very hard to tease out exactly what part is just for recreational fishery, but overall we estimate that we spend between $45 million and $50 million in people and operating and maintenance money, on research that directly or indirectly benefits recreation

Fisheries committee  We have done some work on the walleye in British Columbia. We provided scientific advice back in 2010 on the walleye. When it fits our mandate, such as a species-at-risk issue, we do assessment work that can be of benefit. That's not the case for the walleye, of course. Again,

Fisheries committee  I just want to say that we did do this for consolidation, as you know. We consolidated the activities in Nova Scotia from Mersey and Coldbrook into Coldbrook only. We are able to deliver. We have experience. We've done it. We are able to deliver the program that DFO is mandated t