Fisheries committee  I think there are individual cases where quality may not have been as optimal as possible. I don't know if that is something that DFO is looking to resolve in this. Certainly it's in everybody's interest to produce the best quality product possible. At any time when the quality h

Fisheries committee  Absolutely. Last year in Powell River, some local harvesters set up pop-up sales throughout the season. In some cases, by the afternoon they would have over 300 people lining up from the small town. Almost every time they did that, that's the lineup they had. They had people chee

Fisheries committee  It's very difficult. To replicate the environment that prawns come from, which is very deep water, the temperature needs to be exact—to literally the degree. The salinity needs to be 21 parts per million. It needs to be oxygenated water. Prawns are very temperamental once they ar

Fisheries committee  I don't believe that there's data available in terms of the relationship between percentage of catch inspected and C and P's inspection rate. I don't believe that exists.

Fisheries committee  Sure. It is our hope that the processing companies are maintaining the highest level of quality possible in terms of any processing that's done. It's certainly in their best interests to do so. In terms of price, I cannot give any recent examples in terms of differentiation bet

Fisheries committee  I think we've done that quite quickly in response to this reinterpretation. As Mike Atkins said, the PPFA developed protocols to offer a solution by supporting C and P and upholding the regulations. The PIC offered a proposal of a new condition of licence. We worked very quickly

Fisheries committee  Yes. There was an acknowledgement of our letter and that this was being worked on. The statement from the minister's office about it being a conservation issue and that the practice of tubbing was quite new was relayed to the House, I believe, when MP Rachel Blaney spoke to it.

Fisheries committee  I think what we would ultimately like is a reinterpretation so that we can go back to business as usual and focus on things that are more justified to earn our attention and our efforts.... This, to everybody, seems actually quite irrational—that DFO would make prawn tubbing ille

Fisheries committee  Thank you. As the group of witnesses has said, there was no consultation prior to this reinterpretation. Typically what we would see is a report or proposal to the prawn advisory board. The prawn advisory board met on December 3. There was no report of this impending reinterpre

Fisheries committee  I'm sure the processors would process that product for the harvester and take on that section of the supply chain. However, the processor is going to charge the harvester for the processing, or the harvester is simply going to get a wholesale price for those prawns, the same as t

Fisheries committee  It is really important to note that spawner indexing takes place aboard the vessels quite frequently throughout the season. The number of samples obtained from vessels typically means that each vessel may be boarded several times during the season. Some report being boarded even

Fisheries committee  Thank you. Prawns in B.C., dare I say, are becoming almost like what lobster is to the east coast. There's a tremendous growing and existing fan base for access to our local sustainable catch of prawns. Restaurants are proud to feature them. They're celebrated as sustainable bot

Fisheries committee  Harvesters are very upset at the idea that this may impose on their ability to sell prawns this year. Without much clarity from DFO, you can imagine the frustration level. Some harvesters have community-supported fisheries where they pre-sell portions of their catch, and were w

Fisheries committee  Thank you. I'm not sure we've been given an explanation for why now. You're quite right; the practice of tubbing has gone on for 50 years. I speak quite frequently with the retired DFO prawn manager, Mr. Jim Morrison. He relayed to me that when the minimum size regulation was b

Fisheries committee  Thank you. It may be helpful also to note that C and P does provide, in the post-season review meeting, a report to the prawn advisory board numbering how many violations they've found in the season. For 2020, there was no reference to retention of undersized prawns. In 2019,