Fisheries committee  There's one thing the consumer doesn't want: an ad hoc approach to this issue. I will tell you that. If we're going to make a decision on what to do here as a panel, then it cannot be an ad hoc approach, and then we're going to come back in a year's time or so saying we did the w

Fisheries committee  They aren't going to see it on the east coast of Newfoundland and Labrador either.

Fisheries committee  This is the thing. I was saying that we have to develop a tracking system that we can.... If it takes a year or two to develop it.... Mr. Cormier and his team are working on gear that can actually help on the east coast, if we need to do something—that's the big “if”. Don't go cu

Fisheries committee  No, that's not what it is at all. What I'm saying is that we continue on to the development of creating a tracking system that allows us to be proactive on the east coast.

Fisheries committee  One of the things you were talking about with that fishing gear, the breaking strength—

Fisheries committee  Well, that's the same thing. What we're saying is that there is an option here. The option here is to develop a tracking system that allows you to be proactive and lets you know where the whales are going to be. That's why radar was developed. It was because of the Titanic. We h

Fisheries committee  This is what we're dealing with here. The same—

Fisheries committee  Well, if we agree on that, then we should agree on the development of a tracking system to put on right whales to protect them.

Fisheries committee  No, we've been proactive over all our time in regard to that. Every now and again, we will bust a string or our gear. If you're fishing in a five-metre sea and all of a sudden you get an eight-metre to ten-metre sea and you're working with the gear and the hauler, if you don't ha

Fisheries committee  I'll say it in the shortest way possible: No. Consultations are not what they used to be. I know that we're all getting over the challenges COVID gave us because of the in-person problems, but I think in the future we have to get back to the more regional meetings. You don't have

Fisheries committee  The last part of your question I didn't fully understand, but we don't have any whalesafe gear yet, right? That's not part of our fishery. Really, we don't want it to be part of the fishery until it's proven, tested and true that we can put something there so that we can successf

Fisheries committee  Yes, by all means, you have to be proactive, but you also have to look at the development they're taking into consideration for the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Why not develop a tracking device suitable to deploy on the animal, whether it be a whale or whatever? They have much thinner

Fisheries committee  Those devices are supplied specifically and are tailor-made for bluefin tuna. They're satellite tracking devices. The tuna doesn't have to come to the surface to breathe. Every time they do come to the surface, the information is downloaded through a satellite. That's then tracke

Fisheries committee  Personally I'd be looking at approaching the same fund that Mr. Cormier and his team were using to develop a tracking device that can provide real-time access to ocean users on where those whales are. As I said in my presentation, you may never have to deploy a tracking device in

Fisheries committee  COVID got us away from a lot of the interaction of in-person calls. Normally, the DFO process would be to hold a round of consultations. They'd pick probably five different parts of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Then they would look at the evidence from our past to s