Fisheries committee  It is possible, but how would you know, right? You have to be able to track that through the money; where does the money comes from?

Fisheries committee  Everybody knows everybody else. I mean, you could go down to southwest Nova and have a conversation with a couple of particular people, and they could say, “Hey, them 20 boats there are owned by so-and-so, but he just sold out to...we're not sure.”

Fisheries committee  It's hard for me to speak to the exact situation in British Columbia because I'm not aware of exactly how it works. To put it in perspective, I'm a multispecies licence-holder. I currently have a lobster, mackerel, herring, scallop and groundfish licence. I can divest any one of those to another harvester.

Fisheries committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans for allowing me the opportunity to speak on this topic today. It's one that I consider to be critically important to the future viability of British Columbia fish harvesters. I appear before you today as a fourth-generation independent fish harvester from eastern New Brunswick and the president of the Maritime Fishermen's Union, representing approximately 1,250 independent fish harvesters in eastern New Brunswick and various regions of Nova Scotia.