STATEMENT OF TREFON ANGASAN, VICE PRESIDENT FOR 

 CORPORATE AFFAIRS, BRISTOL BAY NAITVE CORP. 



Mr. Angasan. My name is Trefoil Angasan and I am a lifelong 

 commercial fisherman in Bristol Bay. I am also the vice president 

 of corporate affairs for the Bristol Bay Native Corp. 



I am here today to urge you to support passage of the reauthor- 

 ization of the Magnuson Act. It is my position that the Magnuson 

 Act has been a very effective means of curtailing the interception 

 of salmon on the high seas within the 200-mile EEZ. 



For us, the most important issue in the Magnuson Act is the 



Erosecution of the bottomfishery and the prosecution of the 

 ottomfishery is conservation. 



Another major issue within the — you know, within the 

 bottomfishery is the bycatch problem that has been ongoing out on 

 the Bering Sea. And I have some statistics that are really startling 

 and I will try to — in 1992, for example, the State of Alaska commis- 

 sioned a report to document the 1992 levels of bycatch, and the re- 

 port concluded that over 507 million pounds of groundfish were 

 thrown away, 20 million crab, 100,000 salmon and a million 



f>ounds of herring. And those are the kind of issues that we would 

 ike to see addressed when the Magnuson Act is 



The Chairman. Is halibut a bottomfish? 



Mr. Angasan. Halibut is a bottomfish, but the fishery that I am 

 talking about is, you know, the 200 — I mean, the 2 million metric 

 tons that are taken off the Bering Sea as 



The Chairman. What kind of fish? I am trying to get educated 

 on bottomfish. 



Mr. Angasan. Pollock. 



The Chairman. Pollock? 



Mr. Angasan. Cod, yellowfin sole, you know, ocean perch, those 

 type. 



The Chairman. So, if I am fishing for pollock, I am also picking 

 up a lot of crab, you say? 



Mr. Angasan. Right. Usually the crab is in the bottom — in the 

 bottom, on hard bottomfishing, when you are dragging along 



The Chairman. How would you control it? 



Mr. Angasan. It is a dirty fishery, Senator, it is really hard to 

 control. I think designating areas, and the North Pacific Council 

 has addressed those kind of issues, but when you are dragging 

 along the bottom with steel doors, you are going to — you are in 

 for — fishing for cod, usually that is a bottomfishery, or yellowfin 

 sole, you are going to pick up everything else that is along the bot- 

 tom, and it is really hard on the habitat. So, those are the kind of 

 things that we want to, like, to see addressed when the Magnuson 

 Act is reauthorized. 



The council is working on those issues, but I think it needs to 

 be — I think within the — within the act itself, I do not have any spe- 

 cific language to draw for you as an amendment, but I think that 

 those are the kind of concerns that fishermen have throughout the 

 industry. 



The Chairman. Do you know whether the North Pacific Council 

 has any language for us? 



Mr. Angasan. I do know that they have addressed bycatch, and 

 we really are pleased that they have, you know, addressed the 



