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Testimony of Joe Easley 

 June 4, 1993 - Page 2 



other species harvest guidelines (mostly rockf ish) . The on shore 

 sector landed all of the rockfish they caught and it was processed 

 on shore. 



The offshore fleet was not built for the whiting fishery, but 

 for the pollack fishery off Alaska. The whiting can not support the 

 offshore fleet, in fact the pollack fishery can not support the 

 offshore fleet, nor can both fisheries support the offshore fleet. 

 That fleet is way over built for the amount of resource available. 



The part of the on shore fleet that is being displaced are 

 vessels that are the most productive of the on shore fleet and have 

 been in the whiting fishery for many years . They operated in the 

 joint venture fisheries off the coast from the late seventies on. 

 Their goal and the Council's goal was to bring this resource on 

 shore to provide the economic impact that processing on shore could 

 bring to the small coastal communities . 



If these vessels do not have the whiting fishery to pursue 

 they will have to compete in the other trawl fisheries, groundfish 

 and shrimp, which they have been doing. This in turn leads to 

 smaller catch for the rest of the on shore fleet. It has set up a 

 situation where the total trawl fleet will have a very lean year, 

 it could very well lead to some business failures along the coast. 

 In fact, the Trawl Commission is looking at a budget reduction of 

 about 33% for the upcoming fiscal year. 



The whiting has been considered a part of the groundfish 

 fishery by the Council and the fishing industry for many years. 

 The fishery was counted upon to take pressure off the other species 

 and trawl fisheries. I have attached the Comprehensive Fishery 

 Management Goals of the Council for all fisheries they manage and 

 the goals of the Groundfish Management Plan, let me highlight a few 

 of them for you. 



In the Comprehensive Fishery Goals under Social /Economic 

 Goals, number 3 says "Encourage an environment which allows the 

 industry and dependent communities to make long-term commitments in 

 existing and undeveloped fisheries by adopting management 



