Fisheries committee  No.

Fisheries committee  The problem is the actual court system. The courts will ask for case law, and they will give out a certain fine.

Fisheries committee  No. You're not.

Fisheries committee  I'm not aware of that.

Fisheries committee  The province has no jurisdiction over the carapace size of a species of fish being caught. That's the complete jurisdiction of the federal government and the minister responsible for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

Fisheries committee  I don't think that anybody really knows the impact in total across the five Atlantic provinces, if you include the province of Quebec. I don't think anybody has a grasp on what communities it hits and what communities it doesn't hit. We know it hits in certain areas more than others.

Fisheries committee  If you look at the narcotics trade, illegal tobacco, firearms or anything like that, the federal government does a fairly good job in knowing through intelligence what is being moved in those three illicit trades. When it comes to the fishery, because of the size of the fishery and the number of ports and harbours that are involved across the Atlantic region, it's harder to get a clear understanding.

Fisheries committee  That's a very interesting question. One problem is that the justice system fails to take into account the importance of the fishery and the actions of fishers out there on the water. I think case law.... In some cases, we have prosecutors not asking for the fines to be increased for repeat offenders in how they're affecting the actual fisheries.

Fisheries committee  Thanks, Chair. Again, on that too, one problem with the science for a number of years was that, because of COVID, a lot of the science vessels and the data collection were put on hold for a two- to three-year period. Of course, that affected our numbers in terms of what was actually available out there for stocks or that continued work.

Fisheries committee  From what I understand, now that DFO is actually getting back up to get the science vessels out there on the water and the work is starting to be collected, it's going to take a collaborative approach between the provinces to also assist in that collection of data on our stocks and our species as it applies all across Atlantic Canada.

Fisheries committee  Yes, it does. One problem we have is with longliners and bycatch. Longliners can fish it, and the tuna is not calculated as a bycatch. That, of course, affects the quotas allowed and allotted to our fishers in respective provinces under tri-pack agreements among the countries, as they apply to tuna.

Fisheries committee  Yes.

Fisheries committee  I was asked to step down from the portfolio.

Fisheries committee  That's right.

Fisheries committee  It's very interesting. Actually, I can talk back that far because I policed for over 25 years, back in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. It was more a question of local police departments working with DFO. The DFO officers were on the wharves a lot more. I remember that. We did a lot more checks and department checks in different points of Prince Edward Island to find out where fish and different species of animals were going, and stuff like that.