You make some really important points.
On the mobile survey, this fall is the first year it's gone ahead in the last several years. For instance, with snow crab, increases to quota were based only on harvester-led science initiatives, because there was no data available from the federal government to make those assessments. In the case of northern cod, as you mentioned, there is a case to potentially double that quota and provide all that extra income.
We have people now who can't make the employment insurance cut-off because they couldn't go fishing this year or they had no buyer, so it is really important. If that science had been done and if that evidence was there.... Harvesters see what's on the water. They see all the mackerel, they see all the seals and they see all the cod, but that's not enough for DFO science. We understand that anecdotal evidence is not sufficient, and that's why we're asking for the comprehensive science.
I believe it's a lack of prioritization on where that money has been put. Research vessels need to be improved. The surveys were cancelled because of poor research vessels, unavailability and old vessels that couldn't work. Increase the collaborative science. With snow crab and other species, we've proven that harvesters can collaborate with DFO to achieve a lot of this needed data. We can work together on these important species to make sure that data is collected.