8 



It might be well to consider closing the Peanut Hole to U.S. ves- 

 sels as well. Should even one or two enter that depressed fishery it 

 would completely undermine our cooperative efforts with Russia 

 and our position in the Donut Hole negotiations. 



Thank you. 



Mr. Manton. Thank you, Mr. Ambassador. 



[The statement of Mr. Colson can be found at the end of the 

 hearing.] 



Mr. Manton. Mr. Matlock, the Acting Deputy Assistant Admin- 

 istrator for Fisheries, National Marine Fisheries Service. 



STATEMENT OF GARY MATLOCK, ACTING DEPUTY ASSISTANT 

 ADMINISTRATOR FOR FISHERIES, NATIONAL MARINE FISHER- 

 IES SERVICE 



Mr. Matlock. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 



I am pleased to be here today to discuss fisheries management 

 challenges regarding the management of straddling stocks. The 

 conservation of such stocks often requires coordinated management 

 action by the involved nations to be effective. 



On a global scale, as you have already heard, this challenge is 

 being addressed by a United Nations Conference on Straddling 

 Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks and through the 

 Food and Agricultural Organization's efforts to develop a code of 

 conduct for responsible fishing. 



The theme of sustainable development, arising from the United 

 Nations Conference on Environment and Development, has moved 

 to the center stage of international fisheries conservation and man- 

 agement. These activities underline the fact that the situations we 

 face off our own coasts are examples of problems facing the world. 



I would first like to turn to the challenge of leading the distant 

 water fishing countries of China, Japan, the Republic of Korea and 

 Poland to a sensible system of conserving the Donut Hole's valua- 

 ble pollock resource. We welcome and wholeheartedly support H. 

 Con. Res. 135 and its support for continuing these efforts. 



Through the diplomatic process, we have achieved a voluntary 

 suspension of all commercial fishing in the Donut Hole during 1993 

 and 1994, and all the involved countries are committed to negotiat- 

 ing a long-term management regime for the area. 



In addition, we have closed to directed fishing the major spawn- 

 ing area of the Aleutian Basin stock of pollock. We have stopped 

 permitting foreign trans-shipment in our EEZ and prohibited our 

 fishermen from operating in the Donut Hole. 



Furthermore, we supply expertise and information about the pol- 

 lock resource and its trends and state-of-art means of fisheries 

 monitoring and enforcement. 



We have hosted a number of international scientific meetings to 

 collect and assess the data that have been critical to the negotia- 

 tions and plan to hold a pollock symposium in early 1994. 



The Department of Commerce has placed a high priority on suc- 

 cessfully concluding the ongoing negotiations with a long-term con- 

 servation and management regime which serves our substantial in- 

 terests for pollock in the Donut Hole. 



