39 



Mr. Duncan. In spite of the comment made by Mr. Blum, the 

 council did provide a factory trawler seat on its Ground Fish Advi- 

 sory Panel. They have had access. 



Mr. Johnson makes several comments about economics. The eco- 

 nomics are the criteria for allocation. The act itself is very clear 

 that there are other criteria, the history in the fishery and the de- 

 pendence upon that fishery by those historical participants. The 

 social economic impacts. There are many other criteria that the 

 council and the Secretary can use other than solely economics. It is 

 one of those issues that I am very concerned about. 



The at-sea fleet has demonstrated to have a significant take of 

 other groundfish. Those levels last year meant approximately 10 

 million pounds of available groundfish to the coastal groundfish in- 

 dustry. It was not utilized. That represents, according to Hans 

 Brake, $11 million not utilized. 



I have received by fax yesterday afternoon from the NMFS Re- 

 gional Office preliminary figures which show the at-sea fleet dis- 

 carded 2,500 metric tons of otherwise usable groundfish. That 

 equals approximately $5 million. In 3 weeks the coastal groundfish 

 industry, as a whole, subsidized the factory trawl fleet to the tune 

 of $5 million. 



Chairman Wyden. Mr. Duncan, let me make sure I've got that. 

 That was an official Government analysis of the discard? That was 

 a NMFS document? 



Mr. Duncan. Yes; it is. 



Mr. Fisher. I have copies of it, if you want. 



Chairman Wyden. We will make that a part of the record. That 

 is extremely helpful. 



[The information may be found in the appendix.] 



Mr. Duncan. My point is that when the council did what it did, 

 one of the reasons — one of the many — was that it was, as required 

 by the act, to analyze the impact of this allocation on adjacent fish- 

 eries. 



What it found was that people outside the whiting fishery were 

 going to be impacted. It just further exacerbates the problem. 



In fact, I would like to comment that the Fishery Management 

 Plan itself, which the council follows clearly, says that, "Economics 

 shall not be the sole reason for allocation." So this whole argument 

 about economics, like Barry said, doesn't wash. 



I would also like to comment about the fact that throughout this 

 whiting debate that the American factory trawlers have said that 

 their members made investments and built vessels in the spirit and 

 the promise of the Act. 



Well, I would suggest. Congressman, that many of us made in- 

 vestments, built vessels, in that same spirit. Their presence alone 

 does not Americanize the fishery. In fact, many of us who have 

 been catching whiting 12 years prior to their first involvement, 

 have lost harvest opportunities in order to allow them to Ameri- 

 canize the fishery. 



You asked me to make some comments about the impact of this 

 allocation on my operation. I was a joint venture fisherman. I was 

 displaced under this guise of Americanization. I have made a fur- 

 ther investment in my vessel to bring this product to shore. The 



