46 



Chairman Wyden. Well said. Gentlemen, all of you have said it. 

 It's time to talk in Washington about statistics, charts, and all 

 kinds of Washington economic analysis. 



When we hear people like yourselves talk about what it is really 

 like, discard rates, and how you all have been able to use so much 

 more of the resource, really drives home what the stakes are. 



Let me recognize my colleague for questions. 



Mr. KoPETSKi. Mr. Chairman, I know that time is short and that 

 you have to be in Portland at 3:00. I think I will just hold off on 

 the questions at this point. I know you have to get up the road, and 

 we have one more panel. 



Chairman Wyden. Gentlemen, I can tell you that the reason I 

 am here, and the reason Mike Kopetski has put so much time and 

 effort into this, is that our view is if folks like yourself don't sur- 

 vive and can't be prosperous, not only is the coast going to suffer, 

 but the country is going to suffer. 



We're going to look to strengthen this act. We are going to 

 watchdog the Commerce Department in a way they have never 

 been watchdogged before because we cannot have the kind of proc- 

 ess we had happen again. You've given us very, very good input as 

 ammunition to try to turn this situation around. 



We'll excuse you at this time. 



Mr. Fisher. I would hope. Congressman Mike, that you would 

 take a bag of that byproduct based-product back to Washington for 

 Ron Brown and Bill Clinton and tell it is not manure-based. 



[Laughter.] 



Chairman Wyden. Let us call our witnesses up. Gilbert Sylvia 

 and Neal Coenen. We just have two witnesses on our panel. 



Folks in the audience, please, if you would, in courtesy to our 

 witnesses, come to order. 



Gentlemen, do any of you have any objection to being sworn as a 

 witness? 



[Witnesses sworn.] 



Chairman Wyden. If you would, why don't we begin with you, 

 Mr. Coenen. Take 5 minutes or so. We will put your prepared state- 

 ment in the record in its entirety. 



TESTIMONY OF NEAL COENEN, MARINE PROGRAM MANAGER, 

 OREGON DEPARTMENT OF FISH AND WILDLIFE 



Mr. Coenen. Thank you, Chairman Wyden, Congressman Ko- 

 petski. You have my statement. It wasn't submitted earlier. You 

 just received it. 



What I have tried to do in the prepared testimony is provide per- 

 spective for the work that needs to be done in the future in 1994 

 and beyond for whiting allocation. 



If you will turn to your document there, what I have prepared 

 are a set of pie charts. What I sought to do there is to shoyv you the 

 nature and volume of the groundfish resource available in Alaska 

 and on the west coast. 



It is clear that the combined resource is of tremendous size — 

 some 2.6 million metric tons. Alaska has 87 percent of this re- 

 source. Whiting is about 5 percent of the total, but represents a full 

 45 percent of the west coast resource. 



