67 



Mr. Thomson. Well, Senator Hollings, I appreciate the oppor- 

 tunity to make a comment. What we are talking about is bycatch 

 and enforcement of bycatch. The ACC has been involved in this 

 issue for several years. I think there is a matrix of things that need 

 to be done and can be done that will improve accountability and 

 reduce dirty fishing. I think the kinds of things that Beth Stewart 

 and Chris Blackburn raised in terms of identification of bad opera- 

 tors through PIN numbers on NMFS reports, or through disclosure 

 of names, in one way or another to get the identities of the bad 

 players out in the open. I think peer pressure within the industry 

 is very effective. I think the weighing of fish is important. In the 

 salmon industry here in Alaska, they have been weighing fish for 

 aeons. In the crab industry, most of our crab is landed ashore, and 

 it is all weighed. And even the catch of at-sea processors, of which 

 there is a small percentage, they have to weigh all their boxes of 

 crab. They are required by the State of Alaska to do that. This re- 

 sults in accountability of all crab withdrawals from the ocean, as 

 they are being weighed. In regards to the trawl groundfish indus- 

 try, the individual bycatch quota system, when it is combined with- 

 in this matrix of weighing, it could be very effective in terms of re- 

 ducing bycatch and waste. 



The Chairman. Very good. Ms. Graham, did you complete your 

 statement? 



Ms. Graham. Yes, sir. 



The Chairman. Well, thank you. Mr. Thomson, we would be de- 

 lighted to hear from you, sir. 



STATEMENT OF ARM THOMSON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, 

 ALASKA CRAB COALITION 



Mr. Thomson. Senator Hollings and Senator Stevens, it is indeed 

 a pleasure and an honor to be able to testify before the Senate 

 Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation here in Ko- 

 diak, AK. My name is Ami Thomson. I am executive director of the 

 Alaska Crab Coalition. 



The remarks that I just made about bycatch, I was going to use 

 as a preface to my prepared testimony. The gist of those brief re- 

 marks is that the ACC is pretty much online with some of the tech- 

 nical types of recommendations presented here that would reduce 

 bycatch. The ACC also feels that there should also be some lan- 

 guage changes made to the act that could result in improvements. 



Having said those few things, I would like to introduce the Alas- 

 ka Crab Coalition, a trade association representing approximately 

 65 crab fishing vessels that operate principally in Federal waters 

 off the coast of Alaska. 



The main objective of the ACC has been to promote improved 

 conservation and safety in our fisheries. The ACC has been a key 

 industry participant in the legislative and regulatory processes, in- 

 cluding the 1990 and 1993 reauthorizations of the Magnuson Act. 

 The ACC has also played a significant role in the development and 

 implementation of new international standards for responsible fish- 

 ing, that will also achieve sustainable utilization of our marine re- 

 sources. 



My prepared statement describes in detail the loss of human life 

 and discard waste of target and nontarget species. My prepared 



