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These last few years have been very hard on Yukon fishermen, 



f>articularly returns of both summer chum salmon, which come in 

 ate June and July, and fall chum salmon, which come in August 

 and September. For example, this year there was only 100,000 

 summer chum salmon caught commercially in the river, whereas in 

 1988 there were 1.5 million caught commercially. 



As Myron talked about earlier, the fall chum salmon fishery in 

 the Yukon, which normally takes place, right now is closed, the 

 commercial fishery is closed. The subsistence fishery, which has 

 priority and usually operates roughly 7 days a week, has been cut 

 back to 2 days a week of fishing time. Fall chum salmon are par- 

 ticularly important to the Athabaskan Indians of the middle and 

 upper Yukon River. 



Chinook salmon commercial harvest used to be in the neighbor- 

 hood of 140,000 in the early 1980's, but has been curtailed to about 

 100,000 for the past several years. This lower harvest particularly 

 of chinook and also fall chum are out of concern for Canadian 

 stocks, which we are engaged in negotiations with the Canadian 

 Government and the Yukon Territory right now. The treaty has not 

 been signed yet, but there are agreements on how many fish go 

 across the border into Canada, on spawning escapement targets 

 and general harvest guidelines. 



With that as a prelude, the difficulties in chum salmon, as well 

 as lower catches of chum salmon and chinook salmon, the associa- 

 tion has four recommendations. One, which you have heard from 

 several other witnesses, is to require the councils and National Ma- 

 rine Fisheries Service to move away from single-species manage- 

 ment and be concerned with the conservation and sustained yield 

 of all species within the ecosystem, including anadromous stocks 

 such as salmon and prey species such as herring. 



Again, National Marine Fisheries Service or the council will say, 

 well, that is a state resource, it is the salmon or the herring fish- 

 eries that take place along the coast, that is a State problem, we 

 do not want to get into that, we are here for maximum economic 

 benefit, greatest benefit to the Nation. Meanwhile, salmon and her- 

 ring, as well as other species, are affected by bycatch. We want the 

 Federal Government to take the whole ocean into effect, including 

 fish that come out to the ocean and then go back up the rivers. 



We would also like the Congress to try to put greater guidelines 

 as far as bycatch. There are general statements about we want to 

 encourage conservation, we want to encourage full utilization, but 

 the amount of waste that you have heard about continues to go on. 

 And things such as salmon, they are going back to the rivers. 

 There are fishermen along the rivers, along the coast, that already 

 fully utilize salmon species and herring species. They are not going 

 to go to waste. They are going to be used too — for people, for com- 

 mercial fishing and they are going to be dried and smoked for sub- 

 sistence. 



The other thing, and Mr. McGill alluded to it, is a user tax on 

 all offshore fisheries, with the proceeds used to fund research man- 

 agement and enforcement. 



We would also like to see greater cooperation and coordination 

 between National Marine Fisheries Service and the State fish and 

 game agencies. We have the 3-mile limit for State waters, and then 



