B-15 



MR. ROBINSON: I wonder if I could return to a few 

 points . 



It seems that what will be negotiated in Canberra, al- 

 though it will be described as a conservation regime, will 

 really be a management regime since conservation does not 

 mean no harvesting. 



And I don't find in the EIS — and I think it's really 

 outside of Dr. Green's competence, but you can correct me 

 on that — just how you construct a fishery management 

 regime that is ecosystem-wide, covers an enormous area, that 

 deals with high levels of ignorance because we don't know 

 what the catch will be. 



And I wonder if your office or the Department knows — 

 or if you have consultants who have worked not so much on 

 the scientific aspects of what the BIOMASS in the Southern 

 sea is like but on the other question of what an adequate 

 management regime is like. 



Do you see the difference between the two questions? 

 Can you answer it? Is work being done on a management 

 regime so that when you go to Canberra you and the delega- 

 tion would really know what it is that you would get if 

 you'd have your druthers absolutely? 



MR. SCULLY: If I can try, I'll take a crack at that. 



If we assume that that high levels of ignorance were 

 an impediment to this operation, perhaps we wouldn't be 

 doing anything at all. We recognize that we're dealing 

 with an ecosystem in which there are many, many unknowns. 

 I do think we know maybe more than is sometimes thought. 

 One of the things that I found in Dr. Green's work is the 

 volume of material that is available, and that good scien- 

 tific studies done in this area are more extensive than I 

 had thought. 



All the same there are enormous unknowns dealing with 

 the Antarctic marine ecosystem; but we do know enough, I 

 think, to have led us to the conclusion that uncontrolled 

 harvesting in that ecosystem poses a danger to the health 

 of the ecosystem. I'm not sure how one would define health 

 in the sense, but let's say in terms, of the ability of that 

 ecosystem to maintain long-term productivity, to maintain 

 the relationship between its components in a dynamic way. 



