54 



Editorials 



w 



^^^i CO 



^ ! 



e^ 



s 



t^ 



M 



g fishy 

 at Alaska council 



H| I niess U.S. Secretary of 

 ' R I Commerce Robert A. 

 %^ Mosbacher takes the right 

 steps to overturn a blatantly wrong 

 Alaskan fishery allocation plan, 

 the best interests of the United 

 States will be hurt as will about 

 1,000 Washington state fishermen. 



At issue is a proposal by the 

 North Pacific Fishery Management 

 Council to reallocate cod and 

 pollock caught in U.S. waters off 

 Alaska in the Bering Sea. The 

 council's proposal would give more 

 of the fish to on-shore processing 

 plants than they now get On the 

 surface this may seem innocent 

 enough. Probe the matter, as 

 Mosbacher should - and 

 carefully — and we find the stench 

 of comiptioa 



At present 70 percent of the 

 fish caught in this particular 

 fishery is taken by U.S. factory 

 trawlers. About 30 percent is taken 

 by fishermen who sell to on- 

 shore processors. The council 

 wants to adopt a rule that would 

 ^require 45 percent of the catch to 

 be sold to on-shore processors. 



Several things are wrong with 

 this proposed rule. It is based upon 

 a Hawed analysis of the cost and 

 benefits of this proposed 

 reallocation. Gov. Booth Gardner 

 has made this emphatically clear 

 in a letter to Mosbacher The 

 council's analysis focuses on the 

 benefits of reallocation, benefits 

 that accrue to the Alaskan on-shore 

 plants but not on the costs, or 

 adverse effects of this 



One cost would be the loss of 

 .an estimated 1,000 fishing jobs of 

 Washington stale residents In 

 the bargain, however, the 

 companies that employ those 

 fishermen would lose income, thus 

 putting at risk their factory 

 trawler bdats as well as the banks 

 that loaned them the money to 

 build the vessels 



Another cost would come in 

 the US balance of payments. Four 



of the five on-shore Alaskan fish 

 processing plants that would get 

 the increased catch are owned 

 by Asian businesses. Thus, fish now 

 caught by U.S. firms and sold to 

 foreign buyers instead would be 

 sold by foreign firms. 



Finally, as has been reported, 

 the council membership includes 

 people with a financial interest 

 in the Alaskan on-shore processing 

 plants that stand to gain 

 financially from the council's 

 decisions. This apparent conflict 

 of interest warrants Mosbacher's 

 tough scrutiny and action to 

 ensure no conflicts, apparent or 

 real, are allowed to influence 

 any council decisions. 



Fishing disputes such as this 

 one are governed by the Magnuson 

 Fisheries Conservation and 

 Management Act, which contains a 

 simple and fundamental 

 principle; Decisions by fisheries 

 management councils are to 

 benefit "the nation as a whole "' 



THIS FAIR and reasonable 

 standard appears in jeopardy if the 

 proposed fish allocation rule is 

 allowed to become law by 

 Mosbacher, who as secretary of 

 commerce has the final rule- 

 making authority under the 

 Magnuson law. In a letter to the 

 secretary, Washington's entire 

 congressional delegation put the 

 matter very well: 



"The importance of this 

 decision to the Northwest at large. 

 Washington state in particular 

 and the future meaning of the 

 Magnuson Act's national 

 standards cannot be overstated " 



We trust Secretary 

 Mosbacher shares this concern for 

 a fair application of this law and 

 will act accordingly. Mosbacher 

 must make sure that if any 

 reallocation of catch taken from 

 this Alaskan-Bering Sea fishery 

 IS allowed such reallocation 

 benefits "the nation as a whole ' 



