11 



entific proof that any diseases that those farm-reared salmon have 

 can be passed on to our wild stocks. But an interesting point 



The Chairman. Are you making a point that those are diseased 

 salmon they are letting loose? 



Mr. Nielsen. That could be. 



The Chairman. Yes, but are they? I mean, you are talking about 

 scientific knowledge. 



Mr. Nielsen. Well, we do not have any scientific knowledge that 

 would prove that those diseases can be passed on. It's something 

 that could be looked at. 



But to make a point about Washington and Oregon, the bulk of 

 our Bristol Bay fleet, salmon fleet, is made up of fishermen from 

 Washington and Oregon right here in this Bristol Bay. 



The Chairman. Most of it is processed down in Seattle; is that 

 right? 



Mr. Nielsen. It is processed here, but it is marketed out of Se- 

 attle. 



Now, our wild stock salmon competes with the farm-reared salm- 

 on. Washington and Oregon provides 75 percent of the eggs to the 

 Chileans to compete with us in our markets. Now, think about that 

 for a while and see if it makes any sense. It does not make any 

 sense. We would want to defeat ourselves. I mean, this is a great 

 fishery, and the marketing year after year, it gets — it gets ex- 

 tremely tougher. 



Ten years from now 



The Chairman. A lot of folks up here want to sell to Japan. 



Mr. Nielsen. Well, Japan is easy because you do not need to 

 work at developing a market; they want the fish. 



The Chairman. The Chileans want the eggs. 



Mr. Nielsen. The Chileans want the eggs to rear the salmon to 

 compete with us in that market, or, as a matter of fact, the mar- 

 kets in the United States. 



The Chairman. All right. 



Mr. Nielsen. I have provided you my written testimony, it is 

 some four pages. Not to take too much of your time, I just want 

 to echo the earlier testimony about community development quotas. 

 I think it is a fantastic program and it should be expanded to other 

 related fisheries. 



It is awfully strange that the salmon industry, as an example, 

 has been in Bristol Bay for over a hundred years now, but as for 

 the offshore fishing, we have sat back on our shores and looked in 

 our front yards and looked at a fishery that we could not partici- 

 pate in, but through the community development quota program 

 we are now there. And it is great and we thank you, we thank our 

 Senator Stevens, we thank our Gov. Wally Hickel for pursuing it. 



It is great, but it should be expanded. It has provided opportuni- 

 ties and it will provide greater opportunities in the future. The pro- 

 gram has to be longer than 4 years. It should be put into the act 

 that the CDQ program could be perpetually longer. 



The Chairman. Right. Very good. Thank you, Mr. Nielsen. 



Mr. Nielsen. You are welcome. 



The Chairman. Is it Jeemewouk or Jemewouk? 



Mr. Jemewouk. Jemewouk. 



The Chairman. Jemevouk. Yes, sir. 



