34 



forever and will expand into other areas, other fishing areas I 

 mean. 



I totally support Harvey Samuelsen's statements, as so elo- 

 quently articulated by Mr. Anderson, and I would be happy to re- 

 spond to your questions about the statement that Mr. Samuelsen 

 made regarding the Japanese companies. 



The Chairman. Yes, let me hear them. Elaborate on that, please. 



Mr. Morgan. I think, and I do not want to get into a public argu- 

 ment with my good friend Joe McGill, but the fact of the matter 

 is that Japanese investment built the plants on shore and then de- 

 cided that they could not compete unless they had a specific alloca- 

 tion offish for their benefit. 



And I was active in the process of Americanization of the fishery, 

 and the controlling interests of the fishery before Americanization 

 was Nippon Suisan and Taiyo. They controlled the market, they 

 controlled the production, and so we were successful in Americaniz- 

 ing the resource. And those two companies decided that their solu- 

 tion would be to invest in shore plants, and they were — as I say, 

 they got an allocation. 



And to give you an example of the tragic economic results of that, 

 the No. 1 surimi, quality surimi, in 1991 and early 1992 was in the 

 neighborhood of $2.20 a pound. We now get in the neighborhood of 

 65 cents a pound for that same product, and the argument has 

 been made that because these two Japanese companies that for- 

 merly controlled the market now have an adequate supply of their 

 own. It gets back to, as somebody remarked, about dumping. It is 

 a — may well be an attempt to dump. 



And I would like to make one comment about — if I may, about 

 the council seats and how we deal with people who have knowledge 

 and also have a vested interest. And it used to be customary that — 

 and I agree with you, we have to have people who have some 

 knowledge of the industry in order to do things rationally. 



The Chairman. Right. 



Mr. Morgan. But in the past it was customary for people who 

 had a vested interest in a specific issue before the council to recuse 

 themselves from voting, and that somehow has gone away in the 

 last few years. And I think if there was some ruling about recusing 

 yourself from taking a position in which you — on an issue in which 

 you have a vested monetary interest, I think that might help to get 

 the results we want without the criticism. 



The Chairman. We will go to work on it and we will go to work 

 on it better than form. 



Are there any questions that we wanted to ask? 



Mr. McCabe. I will— just leave the record open. Senator Stevens 

 may have questions for some of the witnesses. 



The Chairman. Yeah, I am sure he will. 



Mr. McCabe. Senator Hollings. 



The Chairman. Yeah? 



Mr. McCabe. I guess Lisa just told me they were heading out to 

 pick up Senator Stevens and wanted to extend an invitation to ev- 

 erybody to come to a no-host lunch at the Bristol Inn right after 

 this. They apparently have a room reserved there for us, and that 

 will give people a chance to talk to Senator Stevens. 



