15 



some of those questions and developed that data, but unfortunately 

 none of the Federal pots of money that have been developed 

 through the relief effort were really suitable for doing that. 



As a result, right now there is no capacity in this system for 

 making any kind of a regional evaluation of the various programs 

 and projects that are going to be, and that have been submitted 

 and are likely to be funded. 



Second, fleet capacity. As you mentioned earlier, my understand- 

 ing is that the relief package as originally structured and envi- 

 sioned included a long list of priority needs. Unfortunately, because 

 of funding constraints, we only got so far down that list. The result 

 is that we dealt with some of the refinancing issues, and in that 

 process potentially, in my view, actually ran the risk of expanding 

 the fisheries crisis rather than solving the crisis, but we have not 

 dealt with a couple of fundamental issues, that includes the capac- 

 ity and the composition of the fleet. 



I simply want to underscore the importance of your continuing 

 your efforts to focus on the issue of the development of a buyout 

 or buy-back program. I recognize that buyout programs around the 

 country have had a checkered career, some have worked and some 

 have not worked, but it's incumbent upon us to try to develop a 

 strategy for actively downsizing the fleet. Otherwise, the problems 

 that we've seen recently and the recent action by the Canadian 

 Government are going to be the start of, in my view, of a much 

 longer term problem and an expansion of that problem. 



Finally, vision. I would argue that for the last decade, perhaps 

 since the implementation of the Magnuson Act, we have been in- 

 volved in attempting to manage a fishery without knowing where 

 we wanted to go. All of the stakeholders in this process have got 

 to come together and attempt to address the issue of figuring out 

 where we want to go, what is the size of the fleet, what is the com- 

 position of the fleet that is actually sustainable, ecologically and 

 economically sustainable over the long term. 



There are some encouraging steps in that direction. There's a 

 group of leaders in the commercial fishing industry that has been 

 meeting and has launched a process to attempt to do that. The 

 council is taking steps in that direction. Those efforts need to be 

 strengthened, they need to be encouraged if possible through the 

 reauthorization, and we have to look at encouraging avenues for 

 that kind of participation. 



Senator Kerry. Good question. Good framing. Captain. 



STATEMENT OF CAPT. FRANK MIRARCHI, OWNER-OPERATOR, 



FA^ CHRISTOPHER ANDREW 



Captain MiRARCHl. Thank you. Senator Kerry. Good morning and 

 welcome to New Bedford. 



I find it interesting that so much of the testimony so far this 

 morning has dealt with the emergency assistance program and, in 

 fact, we're talking in addition about the reauthorization of the 

 Magnuson Act, which kind of underscores my point in being here 

 today. 



And that is that the extraordinary events of the last 6 months 

 to a year are certainly critical, but they're not forever. Fishery re- 



