Yes, certainly. Thank you, Jaime.

There are reasons for the season, but most of them are around the market conditions. Canada prefers to sell all the hard-shell lobster. There is a reproductive season for lobster as well. It's not a mass spawning event, so there is time needed for lobsters to seek out mates, to protect them and to wait for the molt, which is the shedding of the external skeleton, and also for the shell to harden back up again. That takes a bit of time.

Also, I think a lot has to do with the sea and ice conditions too. Not everyone has the same opportunities to go out all the time, based on sea and ice conditions. The Bay of Fundy is a different place because there are never really any sea ice conditions. The tides are so high that they just come in and back out again.

When they're talking about conservation, it's really hard to justify the seasons for a reason. When you look across Atlantic Canada, and even when you're looking at Nova Scotia, for example, in the gulf there is one lobster fishing area, LFA 25, that actually fishes during August to October. So while fishing was happening in LFA 39, in LFA 25 there was also a commercial fishery happening. It's really hard to justify consistency in seasons when they vary across Nova Scotia and Atlantic Canada.

In making room for Mi'kmaq, you do need to share access. If conservation is an issue, they have opportunities. They're part of an integrated fisheries management plan. They have opportunities to have a larger voice in what happens in the fishery. They can suggest, if they want to, a reduction in traps. They can ask for changes in the season. Actually, I think when COVID happened, they were presented with an alternative to select a different season or to split seasons. It doesn't really make sense to use the reason for the season as a justification for conservation.

I think there are other ways that Mi'kmaq could be in the fishery. You need to be innovative, and I think the industry has a lot of opportunities to make that happen. DFO does, too, but I would like to see it come from the industry, because it's more empowering and it shows a capacity for sharing. It's not a typical top-down approach, whereby people felt that they got their trap numbers cut or anything like that. It's about recognizing their belief that conservation was targeted but also to be able to provide some avenues for solutions.

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