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Testimony of Joe Easley 

 June 4,1993 - Page 4 



out the marketing opportunity through the whole year if possible. 

 We see no evidence that Commerce took into consideration these 

 factors in any form, although the Groundfish Management Plan is a 

 Department of Conraierce approved Plan. 



We do not believe that Commerce explored the impact of their 

 allocation on the small shore based vessels and the communities 

 that depend upon them to bring their catch ashore. If Commerce did 

 explore it, they obviously paid no attention to what they found. We 

 see no evidence that Commerce did the analysis that they require of 

 the Council, this has all the ear marks of a political decision 

 made at the highest levels in the Department of Commerce. 



The Commerce decision did not address the concerns raised by 

 the original allocation in any fashion, except in the context of 

 what happened last year as to the percentage split between off 

 shore and on shore. On the one hand you have the off shore fleet, 

 very large vessels that can take great amounts in a very short time 

 (4800 mt/day in 1993) and the in shore fleet, made up of much 

 smaller vessels which deliver about 45 mt a day. The largest 

 processing plant on shore could probably do about 40,000 mt in a 

 season, while the largest at sea processor is capable of about 

 100,000 mt in a season. What you have on the one hand is a shore 

 based industry that is fashioned to take product over as long as 

 possible period of time and an at sea industry that is based on 

 gobbling up as much product as rapidly as possible. 



The on shore sector can not pick up when the whiting quota is 

 caught and go to Alaska and fish for pollack or one of the many 

 other species there. It not simply a matter of stocking the vessel 

 with supplies and a crew, throwing off the lines and steaming north 

 to the Bering Sea. The plants are in the coastal communities 

 attached to the land, where they provide jobs to the people of 

 these communities . It does not make sense for the shore based 

 people to invest more and more capital in plant and hire more 

 vessels so that they can do the whiting fishery in three to six 

 weeks and hang it up for the rest of the year. If the management 



