To start off, a quick thank you for inviting Pacific Balance Pinniped Society to appear before this committee.

First, as a quick background on who we are and our mission, we represent over 700,000 British Columbians in our united quest to bring the out-of-control pinniped populations on the west coast back into historical balance and to reduce the carnage they reap on our salmon stocks. Included in this group are the following: Gary Biggar, director and past minister of natural resources for the BC Métis; Dr. Carl Walters, Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, UBC; Wilf Luedke, retired past head scientist at DFO Nanaimo; Ken Malloway, chair, Fraser Salmon Management Council, which represents 115 first nations; Emily Orr of the United Fishermen and Allied Workers' Union/Unifor; Ted Brookman of SFAB; and Mel Arnold, MP for the Conservative Party. We are also in active communications with Clifford Small, the shadow fisheries minister for the Conservative Party.

As an overview with regard to the perceived fears of selling pinniped products into the U.S., these fears appear to arrive from harvesting pinnipeds on the west coast with the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 still in place. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is dealing with the huge problem of sea lions in the Columbia consuming large amounts of inbound chinook and other salmon species. It took time, but they got an exemption from the above act and have culled over 10,000 sea lions in the Columbia system in the last two years. With the overabundance of pinnipeds here in B.C., it makes no sense to have an act that was passed in 1972 protecting the pinnipeds. Back then there were extremely low populations: The 1972 census showed 7,500 seals and 2,500 Steller's sea lions. The 2019 count shows 100,000 seals, 48,000 Steller's sea lions and 25,000 California sea lions. Have this act repealed and the trade issue should disappear.

Here's what our group found in our quest to establish markets for pinniped products from British Columbia: (a) in the local market there is a 1.5 million to 2 million pound bait market for commercial prawn and crab fisheries, with similar sized markets in Alaska, Washington and California; (b), we have approached a British Columbia specialty dog food manufacturer, and they can take all we can produce; (c) local restaurants have also approached us looking for supply; (d) there is a large specialty market for sealskin products; and (e) the skull and whiskers of sea lions are sought after by first nations groups, both locally and in the U.S.

Dealing with the offshore markets, one of our representatives had been working with the Chinese market for years, and we have a buyer waiting for the green light from DFO to begin harvesting, and they will take our entire production. We have sent first nations-harvested meat samples to China, and they were very well-received in trial tests in their restaurant business. Similar interest has also been shown by both South Korea and Japan.

The stigma still lingering from the anti-sealing protests in the 1980s for the east coast simply does not exist in the above markets. The market for which we can produce, from a controlled commercial harvest, can be easily satisfied with the annual harvest of pinnipeds proposed in our IFMP, integrated fishing management plan. If anyone would like to read the 52-page proposal, it is on record at FOPO with our appearance [Inaudible—Editor] last March.

Again, thank you for inviting me to attend. I'm open to any questions.