114 



AMERICAN 

 HIGH^EAS 



BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY 



3 9999 05982 635 2 



nSHERIfS 



ASSOCIATION 



9 September 1993 



The Honorable Don Young 



U.S. House of Representatives 



Washington DC 20515 



Dear Congressman Young: 



I am writing to express the strong support of American High 

 Seas Fisheries Association for House Concurrent Resolution 135. 

 This resolution expresses the support of the U.S. Congress for 

 establishing a fishery management program for the international 

 waters of the Bering Sea, known as the Donut Hole. 



The lack of an international agreement to establish such a 

 program has been a source of great frustration for us. The 

 pollock stocks that are found in the Donut Hole originate in U.S. 

 and Russian waters - there are no separate stocks that are 

 indigenous to the Donut Hole. For some years U.S. fishermen 

 relied heavily on the income from harvesting those stocks in U.S. 

 waters, but uncontrolled fishing by foreign nations in interna- 

 tional waters resulted in a collapse of the resource. U.S. fish- 

 ermen were prohibited from harvesting these fish in an effort to 

 achieve conservation of the resource. Similar efforts by the 

 foreign fishing nations, however, were not forthcoming until it 

 was no longer economically feasible to do otherwise. 



We are extremely concerned that the foreign nations will 

 again begin fishing on these stocks at the first sign of a stock 

 increase, and that there will continue to be no controls on them. 

 An indication from Congress that the United States regards this 

 situation as serious will, we believe, be of great assistance in 

 the international negotiations that have so far been fruitless. 



Thank you very much for introducing this legislation. 

 Please let us know if we can be of assistance in its passage. 



Sincerely, 



lOMJl/i^ 



KateCCraViam 

 ExeculnVe Director 



cc: Congressman Gerry Studds 

 Congressman Tom Manton 



3040 West Commodore Way • Seattle, WA 98199 • Tel. (206) 282-2731 • Fax (206) 282-3516 



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