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Testimony of Joe Elasley 

 June 4,1993 - Page 3 



strategies which will better utilize the existing capital 

 investment in fishing vessels and processing facilities. 

 Establishing long-term harvest goals would aid in this effort." The 

 Council tired to do this in their recommendation to the Department 

 of Commerce, which, it appears to us was totally ignored by 

 Commerce . 



Under the Groundfish Management Plan the Council established 

 Management Goals in order of priority. There are Goal 1 

 Conservation, Goal 2 Economics and Goal 3 Utilization. Under each 

 goal they established Objectives. 



Objective 2 under Conservation is "Adopt harvest 

 specifications and management measures consistent with resource 

 stewardship responsibilities, for each groundfish species or 

 species group." We believe that taking most of the whiting in a 

 small point of time will led to the taking of more individual fish 

 and in the long run will led to a much smaller quota of whiting on 

 the average . What Commerce did we do not believe is good resource 

 stewardship . 



Objective 4 under Economics says "Attempt to achieve the 

 greatest possible net economic benefit to the nation from the 

 managed fisheries." The net economic benefit analysis done by the 

 National Marine Fisheries Service show a greater benefit from 

 landing and processing the whiting on shore than at sea. It seems 

 that Commerce once again ignored the analysis that they have 

 ordered the Councils to do, which can only be done at a great deal 

 of trouble and cost. 



Objective 5 under Economics says "Identify those sectors of 

 the groundfish fishery for which it is beneficial to promote year 

 round marketing opportunities and establish management policies 

 that extend those sectors fishing and marketing opportunities as 

 long as practical during the fishing year. " Whiting has a limited 

 storage life even when frozen. If one is to make the most out of 

 the market opportunities available one needs to stretch the harvest 

 out over as long as possible during the year and therefore stretch 



