Fisheries committee  Okay, thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'll respond to that. What I meant by saying that it should be doubled, Mr. Chairman, is that if conservation and protection boards go aboard a hundred boats a year—and I'm not sure what the figure is for last year—to me, that probably should be doubled.

Fisheries committee  If I may, Mr. Chairman, yes, we have commercial fishermen in P.E.I. who have been heavily involved in working with DFO. In particular, I know of fishermen who have offered to take DFO officers out on their boats so they could observe what was going on in relation to the catch-and-release fishery.

Fisheries committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll respond to the member's question. I'm glad you brought that up, Lawrence. It wasn't very long ago there was an article in the National Geographic about Libya trading tuna for guns. It was there for anybody to read. I read it. It didn't shed a very good light on the fishery.

Fisheries committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. My response to what we could do.... I mentioned earlier it's a relatively new fishery, the catch and release. We probably have to go back to the drawing board and maybe do some more tagging and stuff just to see what's going on. There are a lot of people that aren't buying 3.4%, okay?

Fisheries committee  That's right.

Fisheries committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll respond to the question. You're absolutely right to bring that up. We probably have the most sustainable fleet going in Atlantic Canada—the P.E.I. fleet. We can take 350 guys off the water on two hours' notice if we get close to catching our quota. In other countries, yes, there are hundreds and hundreds of miles of longline set, there are gigantic drift nets, there is everything you can imagine.

Fisheries committee  I'm not involved in the catch and release. I do have relatives who do it, but as near as I can understand, they have to fill out log sheets. Just exactly what's on that log sheet, the data on that particular sheet when they're carrying a charter, I'm not sure if it's place of origin from the charter and stuff.

Fisheries committee  No, you would have to purchase a towing licence first.

Fisheries committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'd like to respond to that. We're hearing conflicting reports from a lot of our commercial fishermen now. You have to realize that this is a relatively new industry. It just got going in the last three or four years. The amount of released fish varies, but they're increasing year by year.

Fisheries committee  No, they're all active.

Fisheries committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will respond to the member's question on tuna first. The P.E.I. fleet has just about 50% of the licences.

Fisheries committee  We have just about 50% of the Atlantic-wide licences. We get about 30% of the quota. Do I feel it's fair? No, I don't feel it's fair. It's shameful that our fleet sector, with 50% of the licence holders here and living on P.E.I., would have to fight over 30% of the quota year after year when 30 licence holders down in southwest Nova Scotia have approximately 110 tonnes to fish every year.

Fisheries committee  Since we got it changed.

Fisheries committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. On December 7, 2011, we received a letter from Keith Ashfield, the then Minister of Fisheries and Oceans. To answer your question, yes, it's open now. Any commercial licence-holder, if he wants to spend the money to gear up his boat and he has the necessary Transport Canada paperwork and stuff, to be allowed to take out charters, it's open to our commercial fleet right now.

Fisheries committee  That's PEIFA's stand on it.