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companies in the United States. We operate three factory trawlers 

 which are state-of-the-art factory trawlers. We are especially 

 pleased to be here in Dillingham, because, as Mr. Anderson said, 

 we are the partners with the Bristol Bay Economic Development 

 Corp. We have a very successful partnership, and are looking for- 

 ward to long-term benefits from that partnership. 



As a former U.S. State Department official responsible for inter- 

 national fisheries, I am keenly aware that the Magnuson Act was 

 designed to encourage development of fisheries where the resources 

 were considered to be underutilized. 



As you are aware when the Magnuson Act was passed, we initi- 

 ated joint ventures whereby our American fishermen delivered over 

 the side to foreign processing vessels, soon displacing foreign ves- 

 sels in our zone. Soon after this period, the factory trawler fleet 

 was developed and we caught and processed groundfish. In a very 

 short time, I believe it was in 1990, all foreign harvesters and proc- 

 essors were replaced by U.S. vessels which was one of the objec- 

 tives of the Magnuson Act, and our Americanization of the north 

 Pacific groundfish was completed. 



Based on our experience as a company, Mr. Chairman, we think 

 that the Magnuson Act needs to be strengthened. We think it has 

 worked in many places, but could be strengthened, particularly in 

 the areas of conservation and management. 



You said that you were looking for something to take back to 

 Washington to write into the law, and I would like to share with 

 you very briefly just a couple of points with regard to Magnuson 

 Act reauthorization. 



One would be that the regional fishery management councils 

 should serve more, in our opinion, in an advisory capacity to the 

 Secretary of Commerce. 



The Chairman. Now, you were the Ambassador under President 

 Reagan for 



Mr. Wolfe. Reagan and Bush. 



The Chairman. Under President Bush also, yes. The councils 

 have not been acting in an advisory rule? 



Mr. Wolfe. The record is replete with many examples of activi- 

 ties, I believe, within the council framework, where I think profes- 

 sional fishery managers within the Commerce Department should 

 have been more involved than some of these examples that we 

 could supply for the record. 



The Chairman. Very good. 



Mr. Wolfe. My point, my key point here is that we think that 

 a lot of the authority, majority of the authority, should be returned 

 back to the Department of Commerce, where the managers are 

 fishery managers, maybe taking some of the politics, I say maybe, 

 out of fisheries. That is one point. 



The other point with regard to the councils, we think that ethical 

 standards with regard to councils across our country, all of the 

 councils, not individual — not specifying any one council, should be 

 reviewed and maybe some restrictions placed on individual council 

 members. 



As I understand it presently within the Magnuson Act, council 

 members are exempt from Federal conflict-of-interest statutes. 



