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poised to reform our ocean policies. Alaska's fisheries are not an in- 

 exhaustible resource, but they can be renewable and sustainable if 

 we take immediate steps to include ecological concerns at all levels 

 of living marine resource management. 



The fishing industry and the environmental community are 

 working together to ensure that our compatible goals of sustainable 

 ecosystems and the fisheries that depend on them are maintained 

 for the long term. We are committed to advocate sustainable fish- 

 ing practices and we welcome more comprehensive science to im- 

 prove our understanding of the oceans. 



Thank you for considering our views. We will look forward to 

 working with you throughout this reauthorization process, even 

 way into 1994. Thank you. 



The Chairman. Thank you very much. Now, Mr. Coburn, we 

 would be delighted to hear from you. 



STATEMENT OF TERRY COBURN 



Mr. Coburn. I will be quite brief. Something off the top of my 

 head, I completely agree with the two preceding people here when 

 we are talking about wanton waste here in Alaska. I think we are 

 really going to have get with the program and stop some of our 

 wanton waste or we are going to destroy our resources over a long 

 enough period of time. 



The Chairman. Now, how would you stop it? 



Mr. Coburn. How would I stop it? 



The Chairman. What would vou have us do? 



Mr. Coburn. All right. The large ships that harvest perhaps 60, 

 70 percent of the vessels, with observers aboard, and if they waste 

 fish and dump tons by the million back in the ocean to be de- 

 stroyed, they are out of the business. They do not fish any more. 



The Chairman. We do not have observers aboard each one of 

 these vessels. 



Mr. Coburn. No, we have a few observers, but not very many, 

 I will tell you that. 



The Chairman. Yes. On the big ones? These factory trawlers, do 

 they have one on each one of these factory trawlers? 



Mr. Coburn. Well, I do not think they all have observers, but the 

 larger, perhaps. 



Ms. Pagels. Excuse me, Mr. Chairman, if I may, I used to work 

 as an observer for National Marine Fisheries Service, so I can ex- 

 plain very quickly for you. 



The CHAmMAN. Please. 



Ms. Pagels. The way they had it work is vessels under 60 feet 

 do not require observer coverage. Vessels between 125 and 60 

 feet — 60 feet is the demarcation line. So if your vessel is 59.8, you 

 do not require an observer. Between 60 feet and 125 feet you re- 

 quire an observer 30 percent of the fishing time. 



Vessels that are in excess of 125 feet — again that is the line — 

 require an observer 100 percent of the fishing time. So, effectively 

 I do not know of any — well, there may be a few. I better be cau- 

 tious. 



The CHAmMAN. Yes. 



Ms. Pagels. Most factory trawlers have observers onboard 100 

 percent of the time. That does not mean, however, that the observ- 



