47 



ly into the chicken coop. He goes, picks the six chickens up he 

 needs to go to the market, and the egg laying chickens and the 

 baby chicks that happen to get in the way, he just shoves them in 

 the garbage can and takes them out to the dump. How long will 

 he stay in business? That's what's happening out on the fishing 

 grounds. 



Thank you. 



Senator Kerry. Thank you. 



Last comment. 



Mr. Davidson. The black boxes. It's my understanding that Na- 

 tional Marine Fisheries Service said black boxes were not going to 

 be used to. They were going to be used for allocations of days at 

 sea, not for — not to check on who's where on the Hague Line. That 

 was my understanding. They denied it was for enforcement. It 

 v/as — but we know what's going to come. 



Mr. BULLARD. I think the intention, Hans, is that the black box 

 is going to account for your time at sea. 



Mr. Davidson. Yes. Excuse me. Mrs. Johnson just said it would 

 be very helpful in enforcement, which was denied when it was first 

 brought up. It was not going to be used for enforcement. It's not 

 an electronic device because 



Senator Kerry. Can I ask you a question? If you are obeying the 

 law, why does it matter to you? 



Mr. Davidson. It doesn't. 



Senator Kerry. Then do not be worried about it. 



Mr. Davidson. If you're obeying the law, you're obeying the law. 

 Would it bother you if they put an electronic device around your 

 ankle to know where you are, just to know where you are? 



Senator Kerry. I can tell you they put a beeper on me all day 

 in Washington. It is pretty miserable. They will not let me out of 

 sight. 



Mr. Davidson. We do have good fishing grounds that are legal, 

 and that will be — people will know where they are. 



Senator Kerry. Let me say something to you. If you are a law- 

 abiding citizen and you know that there are people out there break- 

 ing the law, and it is in your interest to have a system. 



Mr. Davidson. We have to enforce. 



Senator Kerry. Then people ought to be happy saying "Hey, this 

 is going to protect all of us, and I want to be a participant in doing 

 that." It should not be something you worry about. You should be 

 looking on it as a way of helping the country to get control over 

 this issue. 



Mr. Davidson. I agree with that, but I can't afford a black box. 



Senator Kerry. I understand that. Nor can many, many fisher- 

 men. I think that there is a clear Federal responsibility to assist 

 in whatever mechanism they are putting in place. 



Let me close this off by saying to all of you, and I want to say 

 this, look, if I could wave a magic wand and make this easy, I 

 would do it in a flash, so would everybody else. 



This is a very tough issue. There are questions of science, ques- 

 tions of culture, history, questions of environmental technology in 

 science, questions of economics, there are just all kinds of ques- 

 tions. 



