134 



Page 6 



machinery, vessel maintenance, construction, debt financing, etc. etc. 

 from American sources. -mis is not true with many if any factory 

 trawlers. ^ 



The Department of Catmerce did not bother to analyze all of this (and a 

 great deal more, in my opinion) . 



I now turn to question 4, "Vtoat will be the effect in the long and short 

 term on anall fishing operations and onshore operations in the Korthwest?" 

 We have made considerable investments over a 10 to 15 year period in the 

 catcher boat fleet to catch whiting. None of us can afford to make more 

 investments to maintain this fleet if we are going to be governed by the 

 Department of Coninerce's abrupt about-face in allocations. We can give 

 little credence or support to the actions of a regional fishery management 

 council if their recommendations are to be rejected in such preenptory 

 fashion. 



It shculd be c^jenly recognized that the State of Oregon has made consider- 

 able investments in time, effort and money along with a coc^rating fleet 

 and shoreside processors in the area of product develcpnent, marketing 

 efforts, processing methodology, product inprovanent, etc. etc. Most of 

 the benefits of this research and effort «u:e being enjoyed by all whiting 

 producers. Including the factory processors. For three consecutive years 

 Oregon State University Sea Grant Program, OSO, Coastal Oregon Marine 

 Experiment Station, the Oregon Department of Agriculture and the Oregon 

 Coastal Zone Management Association in collaboration with the coastal 

 fleet and processors have caiducted very widely attended, several-day, 

 workshop seminars vftiere important research efforts and results have been 

 given freely to the public at large. The whiting industry of boats and 

 plants have set up a producers association with the avowed objectives of 

 guaranteeing product quality, the development of secondary products from 

 whiting, the provision of positive public relations for not only the 

 whiting fishery but the coastal fisheries in general, and finally to 

 enhance and promote scientific research to produce more and better 

 products by the application of sea food technology and engineering. 



All of those laudable public efforts from which society as a whole will 

 benefit are jeopardized by liie capricious behavior of the Departanent of 

 Cccnmerce. 



On a more personal note I started the v*iiting fishery in 1978 in partner- 

 ship with Marine Resource Ccrpany International of Seattle, Washington, an 

 American-Russian joint venture company. Itje viiiting fishery grew steadily 

 over the early years of the 1980s in a joint venture mode. I led the 

 first fleet of small Oregon, Washington and northern California trawlers 

 to the Bering Sea in 1980 to ccrmence bottom trawl operations in the joint 

 venture mode. I was one of the early pioneers tiiat developed the pollock 

 fishery in Alaska. 



I am an old man now. I fought continuously from the late 1950s on for 

 extended American jurisdiction over our renewable marine resources and our 

 continental shelf areas. Foreign factory trawlers had shown up in great 



