NEW ENGLAND FISHERY ISSUES 



SATURDAY, JULY 30, 1994 



U.S. Senate, 

 National Ocean Policy Study of the 

 Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, 



New Bedford, MA. 



The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 9:30 a.m. at Durant 

 Sail Loft, 1 Merrill's Wharf, New Bedford, MA, Senator John Kerry 

 (Vice Chairman of the National Ocean Policy Study) presiding. 



Staff members assigned to this hearing: Penelope D. Dalton, sen- 

 ior professional staff member; and John A. Moran, minority staff 

 counsel. 



OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR KERRY 



Senator Kerry. This field hearing of the National Ocean Policy 

 Study of the Commerce Committee is officially called to order. 



I want to thank everybody for coming out on a Saturday morning 

 when you obviously have a lot of pressures on you and other things 

 you could be doing, and some of you obviously could be fishing. So, 

 I am very appreciative of your being here to take time to discuss 

 the plight of the fishing industry. 



Let me tell you what I would like to do. We want to have a 

 roundtable discussion. We do not want to have a lot of formal testi- 

 mony with people talking on and on. We would like to have a short 

 introductory comment by each of the participants, with as much 

 time for discussion as possible. 



Then after a certain period of time with the participants here, I 

 intend to open it up for some questions or thoughts from the public, 

 and that way I think we will all learn a lot more, and you will feel 

 that this has really been a sharing experience rather than just 

 someone pontificating at you or talking past you. 



I know there are a lot of emotions that are even at a higher pitch 

 today than normal on this issue. Many of you have been in this 

 very room with me before and we have talked about fishing issues. 

 There are some existing trends within the fishing industry that I 

 did not create and that I do not think any of the panelists here cre- 

 ated, but which we have to deal with. 



So, I ask you in the course of the discussion to remember that 

 we all share the emotion about what is happening, and I hope that 

 we can keep the discussion completely civil, and hopefully as pro- 

 ductive as possible. 



Before I make a couple of introductory comments let me intro- 

 duce the members of the panel so everybody understands who is 

 here, and I particularly am grateful to them K)r coming. 



(1) 



