I can go only by what I see locally. I cannot say what the mindset in Ottawa is.
Locally, among the scientists who have been involved with the fishing industry and in particular with seals, the mindset is that seals—I can give you press release after press release—have no impact on any fishery in Newfoundland or, I would say, in Atlantic Canada.
There are exceptions, as Mr. Vascotto indicated. There is Doug Swain from DFO, who came out in 2019, I believe it was, and said that the cod fishery would be destroyed by the grey seal, even without commercial fishing. There's a similar report with yellowtail flounder, I believe.
This week in Newfoundland, we have had issues with ice. I watched the evening news last night and I saw a DFO scientist on television, stating that marine mammals were in trouble and that pup seals were dying because of poor ice.
This is simply not factual. If you have millions of pups and you see 10 around Newfoundland that are dead, that's an anomaly. That's not bad ice.
Sir, I tell you I have not seen a change in mindset. I could give you details, privately, of my own conversations with DFO scientists. They are in no way accepting that seals are a problem in our fishery.