Fisheries committee  What types of regulations are you talking about? Are you talking about tighter regulations?

Fisheries committee  I think those two contexts are different. The problem that we see in the Maritimes—I am talking about New Brunswick and Nova Scotia—is much more dramatic than what we experience in Quebec. In Quebec, our rivers are almost natural. The water is pure, the salmon habitat is in very

Fisheries committee  When the federal government expressed its interest in registering salmon on the list of endangered species, the FQSA prepared a brief, which was actually presented to the federal government. In the brief, we criticized this approach. We find that it is not necessary. First, the

Fisheries committee  That is a very good question. It is a major issue. Are we seeing a decline? I think so. In fact, this decline is partly related to the catch and release system imposed in other rivers. Not all people are educated to catch and release. So people stop doing it. In terms of the new

Fisheries committee  We use river-by-river management. We identify the biological features of the river. We describe each salmon population and its habitat is catalogued and counted. We then use a digital model to assess the capacity the river can support. We can assess each salmon river's conservati

Fisheries committee  Quebec manages all activities related to salmon in rivers. In freshwater, the federal government delegates the power to the provincial government. So the Quebec government is the one managing the resource and sport fishing. However, for sport fishing, the provincial minister sign

Fisheries committee  These are non-profit organizations specifically created for managing salmon in Quebec. The term used is “controlled harvesting zone”, which we call ZECs. There are controlled harvesting zones for salmon, just like for hunting and fishing in Quebec. The government has made salmon

Fisheries committee  Thank you for giving me an opportunity to provide some clarification. In the regions of Quebec, managers of salmon rivers are non-profit organizations. As you may suspect, there are a lot of volunteers within these organizations. The financial aspect is critical for them. When t

Fisheries committee  Exactly. There is a direct impact.

Fisheries committee  Yes, indeed, part of it is our stocks, but part of it is also from northern Europe. Previously, these people took about 20 tons of fish. There was an increase because they built a processing plant. Before, consumption was local; families ate unprocessed salmon. The processing pl

Fisheries committee  We're talking about Greenland. First, it's important that there is a decrease in catches. Second, research also needs to be done to document what is happening in the ocean. Third, a massive investment is needed, like we have done for the North Shore through our salmon habitat cre

Fisheries committee  No. Here in Quebec, it's a government responsibility. In the Quebec government's new salmon management plan, which should be ready for spring 2016, the possibility of fish stocking is being considered. There is currently no fish stocking program in Quebec at the moment, except fo

Fisheries committee  No, unfortunately. The Romaine program is only in its first year. Data will be published in two or three years. For the moment, we are still in the labs. Fish stocking should take place starting this year. The program will run over 20 years.

Fisheries committee  Thank you.

Fisheries committee  Yes, absolutely. Studies have been done in Quebec specifically on that. Our federation produced a video that shows people how to safely release salmon back into the water. More and more fishers use a single hook, which reduces the probability of mortality. Also, when river water