Fisheries committee  I would go back to the science piece first. This government has announced $200 million for extra science. The previous government had reduced the budget and had basically put certain things on two- and three-year cycles. One thing I would encourage, given northern cod's recent growth and given its importance, is that this might be moved back to a one- or two-year cycle instead of three-year cycle, so that we are on top of it and see what's happening on a regular basis.

Fisheries committee  My understanding of a recreational fishery is that it's for personal use, so the only value is that people consume it in their house. That's the best answer I can give on that one.

Fisheries committee  From a processing perspective, as I said, if you walk into our plant, it's like an operating room: it's technology and more technology. Generally, the younger people are more comfortable with technology than the older people. As you invest more in technology, it's actually easier to recruit younger people than if you do not.

Fisheries committee  If you recall some of my comments in my opening remarks, if we have five or six plants with, say, 250 people in a plant, with 1,250 or 1,500 people we have enough capacity to produce 250 million to 300 million pounds of cod. A lot of new technology for whitefish is being developed in the world, so with a combination of technology and 1,500 people, I think we're okay.

Fisheries committee  The majority of the fish landed in Iceland is not landed with a gillnet. I think I saw the numbers. It's 10% or 20%, whereas in certain parts of Newfoundland it's 80% or 90% gillnets. With gillnets you can get a quality fish, but you have to obtain it properly and the weather has to be on your side.

Fisheries committee  Well, I guess “go slow” is the main thing. If there have to be increases, keep them very small. Our plant is operating today at 40% to 50% of its capacity. I should be the greedy person at the table saying that I want my plant full, but I'm the seventh generation, and if I'm going to have an eighth, a ninth, and a tenth generation of our family in the business, I want it done right.

Fisheries committee  I would add one comment to that. Whoever is going to manage it, it has to be science-based. We have to get the politics out of it. It has to be science based. That's the only way we have a future in the fishery. Thank you.

Fisheries committee  In Newfoundland, we are not seeing that yet. We've been producing the stewardship fishery cod that's been landed since 2006, and we're not seeing a substantial change yet.

Fisheries committee  I'm going to answer in two ways. As I've said, one of the biggest challenges we have in Newfoundland is 500 years of history: “that is just fish and it's good enough”. That was good enough up until 1992, but it's not good enough anymore. We work with some of the FFAW harvesters.

Fisheries committee  I think we can say that money has a way of solving problems or encouraging change. That was one of the reasons Icewater and the FFAW worked on the quality grading system. By paying a substantial premium for grade A and a very low price for grade C, we're trying to force them—

Fisheries committee  Yes.

Fisheries committee  There are a couple of different things to point out. They have high productivity in their stocks, whereas we do not. I think that's why the scientists want to see approximately 980,000 metric tons of spawning stock biomass. Our cod matures more slowly. In Iceland, fish are recruiting into the fishery two to three years during the spawning stock, and ours is five to six years.

Fisheries committee  You're talking from a stock perspective?

Fisheries committee  Thank you for your question. We're fortunate in the sense that we have the only state-of-the-art plant in Newfoundland today, so we have the investment. Obviously, we're continuing to invest, but if you were starting from scratch, you would need $25 million or $30 million for one plant, and you probably need five to six plants.

Fisheries committee  I should probably answer those in the order you asked them. I'm in Iceland once or twice a year and looking at technology on a yearly basis to make sure we have the best. You have to understand that Marks and Spencer is one of our largest customers in the U.K. When the Marks and Spencer people come to our facility, they have just left the facility in Iceland or the facility in Norway.