20 



help protect those local economies dependent upon a particular 

 fish. 



Mr. Warrens. The Magnuson Act, in response to your question, 

 Congressman, is very specific within the national standards that 

 we are bound to address, that we not allocate resources, fishery re- 

 sources to any particular individual or corporation or dispropor- 

 tionately among the U.S. fishermen. In response to Mr. Blum's 

 comment, we allocate fishery resources between U.S. fishermen as 

 a routine among the fisheries that we do manage, and that alloca- 

 tion has to fall within some very specific parameters as to how we 

 allocate, not solely on economics and for other reasons. It's as bal- 

 anced an approach as we can make, and, obviously, somebody is 

 not going to be happy with an allocated decision, no matter how it 

 comes down. 



Unfortunately in this situation, we were allocating against a 

 very effective and powerful group of fishermen, and if I may speak 

 for the rest of the council members who voted in that 9 to 2 vote, 

 in a way we felt that was fair and equitable to all fishermen, and 

 particular with a concern for the economies that were involved on 

 a coast-wide basis that would, in our opinion, more equitably 

 spread the resource or the income from that resource. 



Mr. KoPETSKi. I just have two more questions, Mr. Chairman. It's 

 my understanding that there is less waste if the onshore folks do 

 the catching as opposed to the offshore in terms of by-catch, in 

 terms of disposal of the processed fish. Is that a fair statement? 



Mr. Warrens. The vessels that catch whiting, target whiting, are 

 permitted to land other species onshore as part of their managed 

 stock complex, and thus probably retain — not probably, they do 

 retain a much higher value for the majority of their catch, as op- 

 posed to Factory Trawler vessels — my understanding, and I would 

 defer to Mr. Blum if I'm incorrect — Factory Trawl operations are 

 set up to handle whiting specifically and are unable to capitalize 

 on retaining other stocks or species because they just don't fit their 

 production at that point. If we get caught in these pragmatic dis- 

 cussions of whose fishery is worth more or less, you can fall into 

 some very definite traps in that respect. 



To answer your question, the onshore catcher vessels do utilize 

 more of their catch by volume than the Factory Trawlers are able 

 to do. 



Mr. KoPETSKi. My final question, Mr. Blum, Government is 

 under fire for all kinds of reasons today, and at all levels. Do you 

 think it really helps our system of Government to use the political 

 muscle of the Factory Trawlers Association to reverse this council 

 recommendation and allocation plan? Don't you think that adds to 

 the skepticism and cynicism Americans have toward Government, 

 that political muscle can be exercised to make these kinds of eco- 

 nomic decisions? 



Mr. Blum. Mr. Chairman, if you will, Mr. Kopetski, I'd like to 

 explore that in a little bit more detail than you might have wanted 

 when you asked, and that would be to say that the process calls for 

 public comment during the regulatory hearings that the council 

 holds. We testified. The process calls for the Secretary to send out 

 for public comment. We commented during that public comment 

 period. Our congressional delegation in Washington made com- 



