you — you know, the bottomfishery prior to 1976 was — directed fish- 

 ing by foreign processors and foreign harvesters and there was ab- 

 solutely no participation by the local people. Even up to 1986 there 

 was very — we were the only Alaska Natives in the bottomfishery. 

 We had one vessel out there in 1986. And today with the CDQ pro- 

 gram, the CDQ partners are being — are hiring local people, train- 

 ing them and they are assimilating into that industry. I think it 

 is a worthwhile project. 



The Chairman. Very good, sir. 



Mr. Angasan. Thank you very much. 



The Chairman. Thank you very much. Mr. Naneng. 



STATEMENT OF MYRON NANENG, PRESIDENT, ASSOCIATION 

 OF VILLAGE COUNCIL PRESIDENTS, INC. 



Mr. Naneng. I would like to say thank you for coming here to 

 listen to our concerns in regard to the Magnuson Act. My name is 

 Myron Naneng. I do not have a written testimony because I have 

 spent the last week or so at the hospital with my father-in-law, 

 who is 93 years old, first time in the hospital. 



The Chairman. I hope he is doing well. 



Mr. Naneng. He is doing better than you and I, I guess, by the 

 way he 



The Chairman. We all hope we can make it to 93. 



Mr. Naneng. My name is Myron Naneng. I am the president of 

 the Association of Village Council Presidents, representing 56 vil- 

 lages on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. 



The Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta is situated north of here, starting 

 from Platinum on the south end and up north to Kotlik on the 

 north end, on the Yukon River up to Russian Mission and on the 

 Kuskokwim up to Lime Village, so there are 56 villages that I am 

 representing. We are supportive of the Magnuson Act, but there 

 are some recommendations that we would like to make that I think 

 the committee or the Congress should take a look at. 



For the first time ever this year, this summer, the Kuskokwim 

 River has had to be placed on subsistence restrictions. Two percent 

 of the anticipated return of fish stocks to the Kuskokwim River re- 

 turned. That means that in terms of numbers 250,000 were antici- 

 pated to return to one main tributary and only about 10,000 at the 

 last report returned to that river. 



The Chairman. And that was a State-imposed restriction? 



Mr. Naneng. Yes. And the other thing that is going on right 

 now, as of this week there are subsistence restrictions on the 

 Yukon River for the first time ever, and that is also due to the fact 

 that there is lower return of some fisheries to the Yukon Rivers. 

 Like I said, the commercial fisheries on both rivers have been re- 

 stricted substantially, and the reductions have been coming on over 

 at the last 10 years. 



One of the things that we are concerned about is the bycatch of 

 the trawl fisheries. You know, there has to be some plans made to 

 address that. You know, it is easier for a fish and game biologist 

 to say that bycatch does not have any impacts on those terminal 

 fisheries, but they do, and they say that without any scientific in- 

 formation, as if to give credence that bycatch is OK 



