Fisheries committee  Thank you.

Fisheries committee  No. I would entirely agree with that.

Fisheries committee  I can venture an answer, if you like.

Fisheries committee  To add to that a bit, as Kent mentioned, the precautionary approach does provide a little bit of that traffic-like approach of green, yellow, red to guide us on whether a stock is in the healthy zone or not. In southern Nova Scotia, within the gulf region, we also track things

Fisheries committee  I would offer, from first-hand experience, that a very soft lobster is very prone to damage. If its shell is pierced or damaged in any way, then it's prone to infection and whatnot, from an individual lobster perspective.

Fisheries committee  There is certainly a higher likelihood of mortality of that individual lobster if it's in a soft-shell state.

Fisheries committee  Certainly. I can speak to my experience. Within the gulf region, there is a desire to protect soft-shell lobster during certain periods of the year where a molting season—

Fisheries committee  Yes, and the seasons—

Fisheries committee  I believe they are important in certain areas and in managing effort overall.

Fisheries committee  Perhaps I could just offer that lobsters in those warmer waters tend to go near shore. Often, females that are egg-bearing come near to shore to seek those warmer waters and to help with the development of their eggs.

Fisheries committee  Yes—

Fisheries committee  Thank you, Kent. I think you've answered it well. The only thing I would add is that, from my perspective, some of the best science actually comes from collaborative programs that we have with stakeholders in the industry, through which we are able to benefit from the expertise

Fisheries committee  Do you want to deal with the indigenous...?

Fisheries committee  You'll excuse me. I'm less familiar with the Maritimes region and all the different projects, but there are transboundary committees; there are a series of different collaborations that go on. We exchange information with our Newark counterparts on recruitment indices, landing in

Fisheries committee  I'm not familiar enough to know how that dovetails with our Canadian regimes. Perhaps David would speak to that.