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Testimony of Joe Easley 

 June 4,1993 - Page 5 



is sound and in place it will encourage these plants to provide 

 employment for as much of the year as possible. The sliding scale 

 was very important to the shore side sector, because it gave them 

 a base to work from and did not encourage them to invest in more 

 and more plant. 



The effect in the short term will be a very hard year for many 

 of the small business that depend on the fishing industry. Some of 

 them may not make it to next year. The fishing industry along the 

 coast will most likely have its share of failures because of 

 Commerce's decision. The processors that have made a commitment to 

 whiting will have to rethink that commitment. It will be a year of 

 hanging on and waiting to see if Commerce does the same thing next 

 year. If Commerce does we believe it will be very hard to hang on 

 for many of those who have made a commitment to whiting. 



We believe that there will be a big adjustment of the at sea 

 component as it is way over built and can not be supported by the 

 resource base. If Commerce keeps its blinders on and what we see 

 happening, happens, we could end up where we have nobody to harvest 

 the whiting resource and it will have to be put up for foreign 

 catch (TALFF) . If this is the out come it would be a sad day in the 

 history of American fisheries indeed. 



