Fisheries committee  Very quickly, fisheries are always in a constant state of evolution. We're now entering another constant state of evolution. We've found solutions. Instead of a top-down approach, let the industry find the solutions. We have a history of doing it. Let us do it. Help with the fram

Fisheries committee  That was it. She got it.

Fisheries committee  Our members are commercial halibut licence-holders, vessel owners.

Fisheries committee  Sure. Our organization was formed in 1997. It's a provincially registered society. It was formed initially so that we would go into co-managed arrangements with DFO. We engage in science activities with DFO. We work collaboratively on a rockfish survey program, even though we'r

Fisheries committee  Do you want the names of some fishers?

Fisheries committee  Commercial halibut fishermen are members of our association.

Fisheries committee  Yes.

Fisheries committee  Our membership is diverse. We have members who own their own boats and who fish. They fish their own quotas. They lease some quota. We have some who probably lease more quota than they fish. We also have first nations members, first nations entities and first nations individuals.

Fisheries committee  I wanted to say that we also do that in the groundfish fisheries, where we manage our fisheries by individual quota. We transfer quotas around from fleet to fleet, boat to boat, to cover not just the directed species but also the bycatch species. A bycatch species could choke out

Fisheries committee  I think some of the points that Martin is making need to be clarified. The program was envisioned in 2003, when the Honourable—

Fisheries committee  Yes. The Honourable Robert Thibault was minister of fisheries, and that's what started this program; it would be a way to move quota from the commercial sector to the recreational sector. Sixty per cent of the recreational catch is attributed to the lodge and charter sector, so

Fisheries committee  It was Mr. Young who mentioned it, but I can speak to it. In the halibut fishery, our science is done through the International Pacific Halibut Commission. For species we catch as bycatch, for instance some rockfish species, that science is done by DFO. For example, in our Marine

Fisheries committee  Just building on what Christina said, I think we've done a very good job on conservation, particularly in the groundfish fisheries, but we had explicit conservation objectives. We haven't had those explicit economic and social objectives to meet, so they've been passed over. I g

Fisheries committee  If I could just add to that from the groundfish perspective, in the halibut fishery, for instance, even though the quota is probably less than half of what it was 10 to 15 years ago, we're able to get more value out for higher prices.

Fisheries committee  I think on groundfish integration there are some fishermen who are trading among themselves. Some fishermen have set up their own groups to trade, so there is lots of word of mouth within the industry.