Fisheries committee  Allowing the fishery as it is right now, or as it just happened, I don't think was a very precautionary move. As I said, we have a very limited stock, and every fish counts. That applies to the place, and it applies to the predators. I wouldn't say that I agree that they are applying the precautionary approach right now.

Fisheries committee  That's a much more complex question. It also varies year by year. You cannot use a measure that is fought over every year. Every year we have different productivity, so we cannot use that same variable every year.

Fisheries committee  If you have an overharvest—and this applies to every species—you definitely impact the survival of the species. Some years might be better and some years might be worse, but every time you go worse, you really have a huge impact on those populations.

Fisheries committee  As I said, avoid fishing for them, or regulate that in a way that will preserve the stock that we have. That will help. That's something on an anthropogenic level. It's tough to regulate the temperature of the ocean. It's definitely easier to regulate how many of them we catch for our purposes.

Fisheries committee  Herring feed on shrimp, so the chain is there. We just finished the herring spawning season right now, and definitely, fishing for that herring is not helpful in trying to rebuild the stock. That's definitely one thing to take into consideration, and the environmental conditions don't help these fish to feed and thrive either.

Fisheries committee  Well, one way to approach this is, for example, like Chile. I'm not sure that it's doing well, but it definitely has a different impact than what we have in B.C. because it doesn't have wild fish. In Chile's case, it's easier. I know, even from a public opinion perspective, that aquaculture is received in a better way there than in Norway—well, than in Europe, in general, and in B.C.

Fisheries committee  I wouldn't say instantaneous either. That's for sure.

Fisheries committee  I would say, for a starter it wouldn't hurt. As we have been saying during the whole meeting today, I don't feel there is one single smoking gun, but there are a series of effects that are adding to each other, definitely making the life of wild fish much more difficult, if not almost impossible.

Fisheries committee  Well, it's a lot of little steps. That's what I'm trying to say.

Fisheries committee  They weren't directly on the program I've been working on personally. I know there has been a decrease in population over there too, but maybe not as dramatic as other populations more in southern B.C.

Fisheries committee  In our program, we focus primarily on salt water, but we are able to have other projects where we assess also what happens in fresh water. Yes, we definitely have parasites that can be taken into account on this. I mentioned at the beginning the protozoan that causes white-spot disease, Ichthyophthirius multifiliis.

Fisheries committee  Yes. Again, this is a freshwater parasite, but we found it also in salt water. We have also found other agents and other parasites. Ceratomyxa shasta is supposed to be a parasite that infects fish in fresh water. We found evidence of lesions even in salt water, which was surprising for us, too.

Fisheries committee  Yes, I can speak for the official section. Every time I meet with the aquaculture men in the division I hear the great job they do, but also how much they are limited in their work because of the limited staff. Definitely that would be another aspect that could be taken into consideration if you want to improve that aspect of the issue.

Fisheries committee  Well, predators definitely play a role. We have to consider two factors when we consider predators. Predators also remove sick fish from the population, so that's one benefit, actually, of having predators, but we have to take into consideration the balance between predator and prey.

Fisheries committee  No, we are not. We have just been working on a study that is under review right now, and we were able to see that the virus that we find in wild salmon jumps a bit back and forth between farmed salmon and wild salmon.