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set up a research system under the council? I have got the money 

 now. What do I do with it? 



Mr. Thomson. We would support a fee system program that 

 would be under the management of the North Pacific council. 



The Chairman. Under the auspices of the North Pacific council? 



Mr. Thomson. Yes, but it could include the University of Alaska, 

 in terms of actual research programs. 



The Chairman. As I understand the language from the Alaska 

 Crab Coalition, "conservation of fishery resources should be the 

 principal objective of fishery management plans" and any regula- 

 tion to implement any such plans. 



This is the recommendation of the crab coalition? 



Mr. Thomson. Yes, sir, Senator Hollings, and I think that Sen- 

 ator Stevens passed that to you. We met with Senator Stevens 

 about 6 weeks ago in his office and went over this with him. 



The Chairman. And you still stand by the recommendations 

 here? 



Mr. Thomson. We still stand by those recommendations, yes, sir. 

 We think that kind of language would clarify the principal objective 

 of the act, that conservation is the principal objective of the act. It 

 also addresses prevention of overfishing through minimizing waste, 

 including bycatch mortality of nontargeted species and discard 

 mortality of target species. Thus, it also gets at the issue of bycatch 

 and waste. 



The Chairman. Sounds like good language. Let me yield to Sen- 

 ator Stevens, see what you think of that. 



Senator Stevens. Well, I have gone over that language with the 

 crab coalition, Mr. Chairman, and I think very highly of it. I do 

 have some reservations on the language of the United Nations con- 

 ference dealing with fishery resources. 



I think we should attempt to achieve the same goal, but I would 

 not want to tie ourselves necessarily to the UN language. I would 

 like to have us achieve the same goal with our own language, but 

 there is no question that the coalition's requests make a lot of 

 sense, particularly conservation measures that promote the safety 

 of life and property at sea. That is not in the act, either. 



Mr. Thomson. No, sir. 



Senator Stevens. And I do think we ought to have safety. That 

 may have been an error in the act and you have made good com- 

 ments. Let me go back to PIN numbers, if I might for a minute, 

 Mr. Chairman. Over the years, PIN numbers have been defended 

 by people who come in to see me because they protect the location 

 of where the successful fisherman is pursuing his trade. And if you 

 publish the names, are you not, in effect, going to disclose that? Do 

 you publish names or vessel numbers? 



How do you handle the PIN number, or do you want to just do 

 away with PIN numbers? 



Ms. Graham. I think that there are actually two different things 

 going on here. If what you are talking about is what boat caught 

 how many salmon just in terms of numbers, how many halibut in 

 terms of pounds, then that can be done on a boat name basis. You 

 can still keep that PIN number as a private piece of information 

 that you can attach to other information that really is propri- 



