60 



will be included in the record in their entirety. You can deliver or 

 highlight them as you wish. We are doing well on time, so do not 

 rush yourself. Mr. Curry, we are delighted to hear from you, sir. 



STATEMENT OF VINCENT CURRY, PRESIDENT, PACIFIC 

 SEAFOOD PROCESSORS ASSOCIATION 



Mr. Curry. Thank you. Good morning, Senator Hollings, Senator 

 Stevens. It is a pleasure to be here this morning. I appreciate the 

 opportunity to speak on behalf of PSPA regarding the reauthoriza- 

 tion of the Magnuson Act. 



Senator Stevens. Do you want to pull up that mike a little bit, 

 please? 



Mr. Curry. Yes, sir, thank you. 



I find myself in agreement with much of what has been said here 

 this morning regarding the current status of the act; that is, we 

 agree that overall, overtime the structure of the Magnuson Act has 

 worked well for the nation, particularly here in the North Pacific, 

 and we think that changes to the system at this time would be in 

 error. However, I would like to summarize five specific points for 

 you that we think deserve some attention in this reauthorization 

 process. 



And first and foremost, I guess, in our mind is the fact that in 

 our opinion, where we are dealing with the most valuable of the 

 Nation's resources here in the North Pacific, it is incumbent upon 

 us to accurately record the catches made by all fishermen that are 

 out there. And we think a uniform system requiring weighing of 

 catch is both resource responsible and should be required both from 

 an allocative and a management standpoint. 



I note that the National Marine Fisheries Service has recently 

 decided with regard to the CDQ fisheries, which you had testimony 

 on yesterday in Dillingham, they decided that all fish caught by 

 participants in those fisheries should be accurately measured ei- 

 ther by weight or by volume. Either one seems to work well. 



We have to ask the question of why it is important to do it just 

 for that 7V2 percent of the pollock fishery, in this example, and to 

 ignore the 92V2 percent that goes on in the regular course of the 

 commercial fishery. We think that that should be improved. 



Second, we would like to suggest that Congress give the council 

 some directive to reduce waste in the fishery by requiring a greater 

 utilization of commercially marketable species. I think that we 

 would want to address what has market, one, and improved utiliza- 

 tion of it that makes good sense, because people can address this 

 issue in a commercial and economically responsible way and that 

 would be an excellent start that would help the fishery overall in 

 terms of its perception of the public as well. 



Third, under the Magnuson Act, the net national benefits are 

 comprised of not only the economics of the fishery, and you have 

 heard a great deal of testimony about this today, but also the social 

 and biological impacts, and we feel it would be wise at this stage 

 for Congress to remind the agency that the net economic effect of 

 the management plan is only one of several standards of review by 

 which the management plan should be judged. It is time for Con- 

 gress to sort of give some direction to the agency and how they are 

 considering some of the plans that come out of the councils. 



