Fisheries committee  Absolutely.

Fisheries committee  Maybe I could answer that first. I would like to point out that one of the things that has been missing in a lot of the different initiatives in the past that would, I believe, do wonders here is that the funding that becomes available to try to enhance different fisheries across

Fisheries committee  I can maybe speak to that. I think in my world there's a global misunderstanding about the distinctions between recreational fisheries and commercial fisheries. The vast majority of the population doesn't understand that distinction, and would be willing to close areas to fisher

Fisheries committee  Absolutely.

Fisheries committee  Yes, sorry, that's what I meant to say.

Fisheries committee  I could speak to that in some ways. I'm not an expert on the status of stocks in Alberta, but I can say that in many different instances when commercial fisheries have been stopped, although it takes some time, you'll get a rebuilding of the population. In some cases, for example

Fisheries committee  I could add to that when the time comes.

Fisheries committee  I think the issue that Mike is speaking to, a tremendously important issue around the globe these days, is that one of the solutions that people are putting in place, and governments are putting in place to protect the world's fisheries, is protected areas. There are many areas n

Fisheries committee  I could speak to that. In the case of Atlantic salmon, it's a complex issue. I think this gets back to the idea that we really need scientists—and we need some scientists mandated, in my opinion, by government—that are trying to work on some of the important issues to bring back

Fisheries committee  I guess it depends on where we're looking. I think, historically, there was quite a lot of effort to evaluate numbers for species like Atlantic salmon. The nice thing about salmon is you can count them when they come up rivers. My impression of the effort in stock assessment and

Fisheries committee  That's a great question. Thank you. I've actually been involved in that research area for almost my entire career. I was on the east coast of Canada working at Dalhousie University when mandatory catch and release came into play for Atlantic salmon. There was a lot of debate and

Fisheries committee  Sure. I probably would preface that by saying a lot of the work I've done has been to look at things like water temperature and how something like that, even in one species, such as Atlantic salmon, could influence survival or mortality. Really, what you see if you look at this

Fisheries committee  I am happy to speak to that. Certainly there are a number of different threats to our freshwater aquatic ecosystems and our coastal fisheries. Aquatic invasive species and habitat destruction are the number one and number two problems for inland fisheries as well as many coastal

Fisheries committee  Absolutely. And sorry, I didn't mean to say that in exactly the way it was said. My point is that I'm talking about recreational fisheries here, as a scientist, and when I look at the people who are working on recreational fisheries these days in the country, it is a small grou

Fisheries committee  Yes.