45 



encompasses waters inside both the Russian and U.S. 200 mile zones 

 as well as the donut hole enclave. 



Within the Aleutian Basin there is a stock of pollock which we 

 refer to as the Aleutian Basin pollock stock. This stock of 

 pollock inhabits the deepwater area of the Bering Sea, and 

 "straddles" the boundaries between the U.S. zone, the Russian 

 zone, and the donut hole area. Spawning occurs almost exclusively 

 inside the 200 mile zones. A major component of the Aleutian 

 Basin stock is what we refer to as the Bogoslof pollock stock, 

 which appears to move from spawning grounds around Bogoslof Island 

 in the Aleutians into the donut hole and back. Estimates indicate 

 that 60 percent to 80 percent of the Aleutian Basin stock may be 

 originating in the U.S. zone near Bogoslof Island. 



The best information which is available to us strongly suggests 

 that the Aleutian Basin stock has been severely overfished. There 

 appears to be a strong correlation between the dramatic decline of 

 the donut hole fishery and the precipitous collapse of the 

 Bogoslof s-.DCk. Biomass estimates for the Bogoslof pollock stock 

 show a dramatic decrease from 2.1 million metric tons in 1989 to a 

 low of 600,000 tons estimated for 1991. The preliminary 1993 

 estimate for Bogoslof, as reported by NMFS in June of this year, 

 was in the 600,000 to 900,000 metric ton range. 



This decline corresponds closely to the dramatic decline in 

 foreign catches reported for the donut hole. The first reported 

 catches for the foreign fleets totalled about 360,000 metric tons 



