46 



STATEMENT OF CHRIS BLACKBURN, DLRECTOR, ALASKA 

 GROUNDFISH DATA BANK 



Ms. Blackburn. Thank you, Senator Hollings, and thank you, 

 Senator Stevens, for bringing this charming gentleman to this com- 

 munity. 



I am Chris Blackburn, director of Alaska Groundfish Data Bank, 

 which represents both shorebased groundfish processors and the 

 trawl vessels that deliver to them. 



Overall, we are very happy with the Magnuson Fishery, Con- 

 servation, and Management Act, and I think the proof is we have 

 gone from — the whole evolution from foreign fishing to U.S. fishing 

 to overcapitalization in our fisheries and we still have stocks and 

 we have very healthy stocks. The act has worked as intended to 

 conserve the stocks and maintain the stocks and offer, through the 

 regional management councils, tools for the industry, and the Fed- 

 eral Government to use to conserve the stocks. 



I think a lot of the comments and concerns about the act have 

 to do not with the act itself, but with the implementation. We de- 

 tail some of this in our testimony, our written testimony at length. 

 I think one example is there is always concern about the appoint- 

 ments to the council. The act very clearly outlines the type of peo- 

 ple and the criteria for appointment to the council. We have never 

 seen the Secretary reject a Governor's names, even when those 

 names did not meet those criteria. If the Secretary followed the act, 

 we would have better council appointees. 



In the North Pacific, I think we have been very fortunate. There 

 has been — I think 98 percent of the appointees have met the cri- 

 teria, and that may be the only reason why the council has 

 been 



The Chairman. But you say sometimes the Secretary, even 

 though a nominee does not qualify under the guidelines of the act, 

 goes ahead with the appointment anyway? 



Ms. Blackburn. He does not reject the name. He has a habit of 

 when someone sends in one or two names of people who obviously 

 do not qualify, we feel those always should be sent back and the 

 Governor should be required to produce three qualified names. 



The CHAmMAN. Very good. Excuse me. Go right ahead. 



Ms. Blackburn. The issue of waste and discard is, as you have 

 heard, a very critical issue in Alaska. Not only are we preserving 

 our stocks, we are trying to figure out if we could get more value 

 for the fish. There is a lot of suggestion in Alaska that we should 

 be moving toward what is called full utilization; in other words, 

 you catch it, you keep it and you use it, whether for meat or for 

 fishmeal, and if you do not need that fish, you better figure out 

 how not to catch it. 



I think one of the biggest impediments we have to things like full 

 utilization are right in the act where it says net benefit to the Na- 

 tion, it requires that all actions consider net benefit to the Nation. 

 The way that is interpreted by National Marine Fishery Service 

 economists is maximum short-term corporate profits, and the 

 economists have actually come out and said, "Gee, the net benefit 

 to the Nation is to pull the roe out of the pollock and toss the car- 

 casses away." 



