Fisheries committee  There's a myriad of silence around it. Some juries are still out. In my mind, it's not. They have introduced a couple of diseases. That's a recognized, known fact on the west coast. They introduced parasite loading that wipes the smolts out, basically. They load them up with lice to the point that they no longer survive.

Fisheries committee  Can that be emailed?

Fisheries committee  A cull was never in question. It's a harvest base and a progressive harvest base, starting off at 5,000 and moving incrementally forward. Given the state of our current fisheries fleet, yes, we have more than enough crew and boats on standby. Our plants are sitting idle. They're empty because of the reduction in our fisheries production.

Fisheries committee  We do not need that on the west coast. We are completely self-sufficient. All we need is the green light.

Fisheries committee  It would make absolutely zero difference. There are issues with fish farms, but they're a small footprint. A huge supply of pinnipeds is not a small footprint. That's not a localized event. That is coast-wide. The fish farms are negligible compared to what is going on with depredation.

Fisheries committee  You have to get into a harvest control regime of an exploding population. I have a great deal of science that backs up the statement. All of them are peer-reviewed; all of them are written. I will provide that as expert testimony to this panel. You folks are going to find that a great deal of the science that I will submit to you will directly counter what Mr.

Fisheries committee  That's a really good question, Lisa Marie. I'm happy you asked it. As I noted previously, the Americans seriously altered their Marine Mammal Protection Act to allow them to cull. I must point out that there is a large difference here. We are looking at harvest, utilizing maximum product from that animal, and they culled 9,000-plus sea lions.

Fisheries committee  You saw my partner's reaction. No.

Fisheries committee  I alluded to that previously. It's gone from 400 boats to 30. I am out of the industry now. Why am I retiring? We're going to get three weeks, and that's our season. What we saw was robust salmon stocks in incredible numbers. Then we saw the wave of Californians move in under blanket “marine mammal protection”, and the increase of the local Stellers and local harp seals.

Fisheries committee  Absolutely not. I would like to point to the fact that Ken alluded to the U.S. revision, which pulled the teeth out of the Marine Mammal Protection Act, such that they could reduce the number of sea lions in their waters. Contrary to what Dr. Trites is telling you, they aren't just “problematic” ones when you're talking 9,000-plus animals in a year and a half.

Fisheries committee  What we are bearing witness to today is the collapse of salmon and herring and other industries. You cannot overestimate what that means to coastal communities. My fleet was 400 boats strong when I started. Today we have 30 active commercial trollers. What has that done to the communities they live in?

Fisheries committee  They effectively dealt with them by harvesting them very aggressively. I have a buddy who lives there, and he spearheaded one of the fleets that engaged in that process. I can confirm that that's what went on.

Fisheries committee  Yes. In fact, we've done very serious investigations into that. We have determined that we have markets for hides, we have markets for the meat, and we have markets for the omega-3 fatty acids. The only one that we have left to deal with is the bones. Those markets exist far and beyond, for any harvest size that we propose.

Fisheries committee  The biggest impediment to those markets is DFO. They have had our IFMP in front of them for five and a half years. They come up with nonsensical roadblocks repeatedly. It is due to a fear of the public that they are doing this. None of their impediments are based on science.

Fisheries committee  With the chair's permission, if I can have 30 to 40 seconds, I would like to do my presentation. Can I have leave to do that?