Fisheries committee  I've been looking at it for the last 30 years and I'm not entirely sure I understand the answer to that. It's almost a rhetorical question. The rationale that I've heard about using it as a management tool is that it does limit the capacity and hence limits the pressure you would have on a resource.

Fisheries committee  Yes, absolutely. When we're talking about restricting size for issues of safety, we're also putting serious limitations on quality, and on ergonomics and crew comfort, and so on.

Fisheries committee  I think the thrust of the declaration of adjacency is to recognize the principle and put that at the front end of how you proceed with who gets the proper sharing arrangement. The principle was the main focus. The details of how you do that is not something that I deal with specifically, but I think there is a common sense approach.

Fisheries committee  Yes, exactly. To illustrate the point further, the principle of adjacency is entrenched in the allocation of quota. I think that has some direct relevance to how we proceed in terms of allocating northern cod. We see examples in Newfoundland and Labrador and on the west coast and the gulf where the allocation of halibut has been reduced for the people along the coast.

Fisheries committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, and committee members. This all came on very short notice for me. I actually heard about the standing committee's work on Saturday at meetings in Moncton, so I don't have a formal presentation. I didn't even know this morning that I might even get on. Pardon me for that.