28 



And I should tell you that Senator Daschle is also a co-sponsor 

 of this bill. Thank you. 



Any other comments? 



Mr. Warren. Senator Akaka, I would like to go back to an ear- 

 lier question that Mr. Robertson commented about, and it has to 

 do with the credit availability and the difficulties therewith, and I 

 think he certainly made a case that it is — it has its own special 

 problems in justifying credit, particularly when you have got a 

 banker that gets pretty nervous when he cannot see his collateral. 

 There are no ear tags or parts numbers on these fish. 



But, however, there are also different studies and research going 

 on on the possibility of underwater detections where it might be 

 sonar. Certainly if we can identify a sub 200 miles away, we should 

 be able to identify the number of fish in a 15-acre pond. 



So there are some real good opportunities there to not only deter- 

 mine inventory numbers, but also get off into behavior patterns 

 with these fish. Do they all feed when the mechanical feeder goes 

 by? If not, where are they? Why do some fish continue to escape 

 the centuries-old tradition of seining, netting the fish up, which is 

 obvious by the fact that you end up with a significant number of 

 oversized fish. 



And then you have got — and it is not unique just to fish, but it 

 is certainly an off-flavor syndrome. It can affect cow's milk or pork 

 meat. It is not as unusual as it might seem. But off-fiavor in a cat- 

 fish has nothing to do with the wholesomeness or safety of the fish; 

 it is strictly an aesthetic or taste quality that the fish receives from 

 algae that grows in the water. Blue-green algae particularly is one 

 of the major causes. 



And this can happen to 80 to 90 percent of the entire inventory 

 during the summer months. And these fish, if they are in this off- 

 flavor condition, are not marketable. Therefore it comes back to Mr. 

 Robertson's comments about the cashflow problems. 



You have got a fish that you have raised for 18 months, and now 

 he is ready, he is at an optimum size to market — whether it is 

 chickens, poultry, you know, we all have our optimum market 

 sizes — well, you cannot move this product at that point. 



So then you go past the optimum, and then your returns on your 

 feed and all start diminishing. So these are the kinds of problems 

 that do make it difficult to sit down and convince a banker that 

 this is really where he wants to spend his bank's money instead 

 of financing a trailer down the street that he can look at every day. 



Senator Akaka. Mr. Zimmerman? 



Mr. Zimmerman. Senator Akaka, Jim Zimmerman. 



First of all, I would like to commend GAO on their report. I think 

 it is very thorough. 



We in the State of Washington have recognized in the credit area 

 that success breeds success, and private sector bankers have been 

 very good about sponsoring aquaculture products and ventures in 

 the State of Washington. We feel that Senate bill 1288 will en- 

 hance that advancement and therefore make private sector bankers 

 aware of the aquaculture industry and how successful it can be. 



Thank you. 



