10 



further inland than we tend to beheve or the public tends to be- 

 lieve. 



I thank you. 



Senator KERRY. I thank the Senator. I would simply say that the 

 converse is also true. Upstream activities have an enormous impact 

 on New England fisheries. There are 60,000 acres of closed clam 

 flats off Cape Cod today due to nonpoint source pollution. Runoff 

 from oil and gasoline spills, refuse, and development, flows into our 

 rivers and estuaries and remains a serious threat to coastal water 

 quality and coastal resources. 



I am very familiar with the Columbia River issues. 



Senator Burns. Actually, Mr. Chairman, we just have basically 

 two species, one is on the endangered species list and one is a can- 

 didate to be listed. 



Senator Kerry. I understand that. There is a balance there, and 

 you have raised very legitimate issues. I am not questioning at all 

 what you have raised. I am simply saying that we have to under- 

 stand the converse is also true. 



Senator Burns. Sure. That is exactly correct. 



Senator Kerry. Regrettably, too many of our bays and estuaries 

 are dying. Right here in Chesapeake Bay nitrate overloading has 

 resulted in a classic example of an area in jeopardy because of de- 

 velopmental practices. 



Mr. Ambassador and Mr. Secretary, thank you for being here 

 with us this morning. Do you want to lead off, Mr. Ambassador? 

 Thank you. 



STATEMENT OF AMBASSADOR DAVID A. COLSON, DEPUTY AS- 

 SISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE FOR OCEANS, DEPARTMENT 

 OF STATE 



Ambassador CoLSON. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I do have a pre- 

 pared statement, and if it could be placed in the record I will sum- 

 marize. 



Senator Kerry. Thank you very much. Without objection, the full 

 statement will be in the record. 



Ambassador Colson. I am delighted to be accompanied by Will 

 Martin of NOAA, who is going to address some of the international 

 fishery issues. I think I can say that, based on almost 20 years of 

 experience in the Federal Government working on these issues, the 

 cooperation today between the State Department, NOAA, the Na- 

 tional Marine Fisheries Service, and the Coast Guard is the best 

 that it has ever been. And I also think I can say that the channels 

 of communication with the NGO community and the industry, re- 

 lating to these issues, is as good as it has ever been, and I look 

 forward to hearing the discussion from the second panel this after- 

 noon. 



There are many, many issues involved when you just talk about 

 international fisheries. There is a tremendous range of issues that 

 we could talk about, and we really do not have time to do it, so 

 I would like to focus on nine different very specific points. 



First, I do think that we can say today that the United States 

 has taken a very strong leadership role internationally on these 

 international fishing issues. We do so because of our concern for 

 the marine environment. We do so because we know that the sus- 



