Mr. Chairman, thank you again for holding this hearing. I would like to welcome 

 today's witnesses, and I look forward to their testimony. 



Mr. Studds. I thank the gentleman. I know I speak on behalf of 

 the weakfish and the fluke and the other Atlantic fishes in express- 

 ing their particular appreciation to the concern of the West Coast. 



Mr. Hamburg. Thanks, Mr. Chairman. 



Mr. Studds. We will go to panel one. There are three folks on 

 this panel. I trust you have been advised of our barbaric procedures 

 here. There is that little set of lights in front of you. You are being 

 asked to confine your oral testimony to no more than five minutes. 

 Your written testimony will appear in full in the record, and histo- 

 rians will never know whether you completed it or not. The yellow 

 light will go on when you have one minute remaining, and when 

 the red light goes on you have completed your statement. We 

 apologize, but it is the only way we have discovered over the years 

 to allow everybody to speak and then to get to questions. 



We will begin with Dr. Michael Tillman of the National Marine 

 Fisheries Service. Dr. Tillman, I regret the title you apparently 

 have — Acting Deputy Assistant Administrator for Fisheries. Well, I 

 guess it could be worse although it is hard to imagine. Welcome. 



STATEMENT OF DR. MICHAEL TILLMAN, ACTING DEPUTY ASSIST- 

 ANT ADMINISTRATOR FOR FISHERIES, NATIONAL MARINE 

 FISHERIES SERVICE, NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC 

 ADMINISTRATION 



Dr. Tillman. Thank you, sir. I have commented to others about 

 the length of that title. It might be better just to say I am the 

 Acting Deputy Director of the National Marine Fisheries Service. 

 We are within the Department of Commerce, however, and I do ap- 

 preciate the opportunity to appear before this Subcommittee this 

 afternoon to present the Department's views on management of in- 

 terjurisdictional fisheries. 



Under the Committee's bill, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries 

 Commission would monitor the implementation and enforcement of 

 the provisions of the Commission's Interstate fisheries manage- 

 ment plans by each of the coastal States. States not implementing 

 measures consistent with the provisions of a plan or not adequately 

 enforcing such measures would be reported by the Commission to 

 the Secretary of Commerce and the Secretary of the Interior as 

 being out of compliance with a plan. If the Secretary of Commerce, 

 in consultation with the Secretary of the Interior, agrees that a 

 State is out of compliance with a plan, the Secretary would declare 

 a moratorium on fishing for the species covered by the plan in the 

 coastal waters of that State. The moratorium would be lifted upon 

 notice from the Commission that the State had taken appropriate 

 remedial action. 



Other provisions of the bill include Federal support for State 

 coastal fisheries programs, implementation of regulations in the 

 EEZ by the Secretary in the absence of a fishery management plan 

 under the Magnuson Act, and financial assistance by the Secretar- 

 ies to the Commission and to the States to carry out the provisions 

 of the bill. 



