32 



That is another key point that we would like to leave with you 

 today. 



The Chairman. You think they should be subject to 



Mr. Wolfe. Absolutely, like every other Federal official, yes, sir. 



Within the Magnuson framework, we think Congress should ad- 

 dress the overcapitalization of our fisheries. The act currently pro- 

 hibits the Secretary from designating — I should say designing or 

 initiating limited access programs through market-based systems. 

 By that I mean an individual transferable quota. 



We hate to hit you today with a lot of these CDQ's and ITQs, but 

 this ITQ program has become very important to our segment of the 

 industry. The authority to prepare these market based systems 

 that I am talking about, such as an ITQ system, reside solely with- 

 in the regional councils. Unfortunately, the councils have been slow 

 to move on this process. 



You made a point earlier that the councils are slower than Con- 

 gress. This is scary, but I think it is accurate. I mean, the council 

 has been very slow on developing a market-driven system for our 

 particular fishery. 



The Chairman. Then and only then can the Secretary of Com- 

 merce act. 



Mr. Wolfe. That is my understanding. I think it has to be initi- 

 ated, designed by the councils and then the Secretary of Commerce 

 would implement. 



The Chairman. But he could disapprove, send it back to them. 



Mr. Wolfe. That is correct. 



The Chairman. He has to still wait for them to 



Mr. Wolfe. I believe it is just a — I believe it is just a disapproval 

 or approval. I do not believe he can toy with it, but I would have 

 to check the law on that. 



Briefly, I would like to more specifically address overcapitaliza- 

 tion in our North Pacific fisheries. It is pretty simple, Mr. Chair- 

 man. There are too many vessels for too little fish — excess harvest- 

 ing in the processing capacity, that is resulting in substantial eco- 

 nomic inefficiency. 



There is an industrywide quota. Everyone fishes for it at one 

 time. It is unsafe, inefficient, and it places a premium on quantity 

 and not quality. We believe that this individual transferable quota 

 program would help resolve much of the problem which we cur- 

 rently experience in this overcapitalized fishery. You would not 

 have to run and race to go out and get your share of fish. The safe- 

 ty at sea would be, I think, improved, and market factors, such as 

 demand and supply, could be improved. 



In keeping with the intent of the Magnuson Act, we think these 

 allocations should be given to those participants who have done the 

 most to Americanize the groundfish fisheries in the North Pacific, 

 and a rational way to measure degrees of Americanization would 

 be to determine wnich participants have created and continued to 

 create the most value in a given fishery. And these should be active 

 participants, individuals who are fishing now. We should not give 

 these quotas to anyone that is no longer making their livelihood in 

 fisheries. 



Before I close, Mr. Chairman, you made a point about represen- 

 tation on the council. We are not here to directly discuss that issue 



