Fisheries committee  As I said in the opening remarks, the first steps are an action plan within six months: action, action and action. I know a lot of harvesters who shoot on sight. If they are in a boat and they see a seal that's interfering with what they are doing, they take the seal out. I think a lot more of that is going to be happening.

Fisheries committee  Mr. Small, can I elaborate a bit on that first question you asked?

Fisheries committee  In terms of your bill to legislate the management of seal populations, that was doomed. You didn't have a chance, because the Government of Canada doesn't manage seals. They don't want the management of seals incorporated into population assessments for other stocks. Again, the stand of the parties in Ottawa, from my time here—and I mean, I live and breathe this stuff—is that they may have a public stand to support the seal hunt, but it's a public stand.

Fisheries committee  The answer is that it's not proper management. If you're not managing the entire ecosystem—all the predators and the prey—that is not proper management.

Fisheries committee  The impacts would be exactly what you have now. We have three cod stocks adjacent to Newfoundland. All three cod stocks are in the critical zone around Newfoundland. We have a moratorium on northern cod, year 31. We have a moratorium in 4R in the gulf, year two. We have a 1,500-tonne quota on the south coast 3Ps cod.

Fisheries committee  No.

Fisheries committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you to the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans for the invitation to testify as part of this latest pinniped study. I say “latest” because, as this committee has already heard, there have been dozens of federal government studies and reports since the early 1990s on the east coast seal problem.