Fisheries committee  Absolutely I agree with that—for instance, scientifically to understand the impact of all other activities that might take place within the ocean that can then be protected within a no-take area. That can help us understand some of those impacts. It can also help us with the stoc

Fisheries committee  MPAs can have effects on the food web. If, for instance, there's a lot of fishing of the top-level predators, they are likely to recover when the fishing pressure is taken away, and then they eat the smaller fish. You might then get a very different food web inside a protected ar

Fisheries committee  I do believe that's one of the benefits that MPAs will provide into the future. It wouldn't be an immediate effect, because, as Mr. Turris was saying, some species do take a long time to build up that level of biomass in the number of fish. In terms of the history of fishing, w

Fisheries committee  It can be. If you're looking at the IUCN criteria, there are different categories of MPAs. Those are the ones Mr. McIsaac was referring to as the category IV, or sometimes category IV if the fishing is quite limited.

Fisheries committee  In that comment I was referring to a study that showed the five criteria that have been shown to create the most effective MPAs. The last one was that they should protect whole ecosystems or be, as the study says, isolated by deep water or sand. In other words, it means if you pr

Fisheries committee  It depends on the MPA and the specific objectives. Science shows that those no-take areas are most effective, but I was talking about the fact that in MPAs that allow some fishing but still provide more protections than areas that are not within MPAs, they still provide additiona

Fisheries committee  As I mentioned in my statement, I think it's really important to have a transparent and accountable process in identifying MPAs. As I think my colleagues from the commercial fishing sector have said, it is really important, if indeed.... I haven't been part of either the Scott Is

Fisheries committee  I don't know the specifics of the place you're talking about, but it's always a good question to ask what the goals are of having either an individual MPA or an MPA network. Often it is thought to be what the place was like before fishing happened, but in many cases that's not re

Fisheries committee  Most of the collaborations I've had have been with first nations fishers, some of whom are commercial fishermen, some of whom only fish for food, social, and ceremonial purposes. I would say it's been off and on since I've been involved over the past 14 years, but I haven't had a

Fisheries committee  I think that's correct. I think the other difference is that the FAO definition, as Mr. McIsaac just mentioned, didn't include the requirement for long-term legal protection. I think that's another key difference. The IUCN does require that, which is why, for instance, the rockfi

Fisheries committee  I was providing the example of recreational fisheries in the RCAs, but I think it's applicable more broadly as well.

Fisheries committee  I believe it's more applicable for the recreational fisheries, because they're harder to monitor. As my colleagues were saying, many of the commercial fisheries have observers on board, 100% observer coverage, and they have vessel monitoring systems. Compliance in the commercial

Fisheries committee  I think it's a bit of a combination. In terms of the marine protected area design I was talking about, the idea is to protect all examples of both habitat types and species. That would include commercially fished species, as well as those that are not. However, the information we

Fisheries committee  There's some evidence that no-take areas, or areas where no extraction is allowed, can help restock places outside these, through what's called “spillover”. The evidence of that is somewhat mixed, though. If we have more fish in a place that's protected and if the fish don't move

Fisheries committee  On their own, I don't think they would. The RCAs were set up specifically to protect rockfish, mainly the inshore stocks of rockfish, yet MPAs are meant for biodiversity as a whole. One of the first things that would have to get done is to see what habitat types and ecosystems ar