Fisheries committee  Absolutely. More fish, more profit through a lot of different fisheries, like the recreational fleet, and then you start taking care of the FSC obligations as well, but you need to mention habitat protection. When I was up near Bella Bella, we went into Spiller Inlet, and we were watching our competition with other industries.

Fisheries committee  Yes, I would.

Fisheries committee  I won't.

Fisheries committee  I have just a brief comment. Since I've been on the area B harvest committee, when we're dealing with area managers, we often hear, “no science, no fishery”. We represent a very large dataset, so it's starting to get a bit easier for us to be less reluctant to give up our spots or how much we have caught because we know that if we don't, there might be no opportunity.

Fisheries committee  Something like that.

Fisheries committee  I just left that central coast herring charter, and you can ask me how happy I was when we were plowing through a 40-knot gale in the Queen Charlotte Strait. We were going to go to a place called Shelter Bay. There was a fish farm in there. I looked there, and I couldn't go to this bay: it's a competing industry, and it's polluting our fish.

Fisheries committee  I know this is the upcoming year for the big sockeye cycle on the south coast of B.C. I did some calling around trying to procure some more licences for the boat I fish on. There are offers requiring that 50% of the profits from that licence—that's all the sockeye quota and all other fisheries—go straight to the licence holder.

Fisheries committee  Madam Chair and honourable members, thank you for having me here and listening to my story. My name is James Lawson, and I am a career fisherman. During my time I have harvested salmon and herring by seine, herring by gillnet, frozen at-sea prawns and urchins by scuba dive, and geoducks by surface-supplied dive.