23 



it is the most profitable fishery now is because the salmon fishery 

 industry is so beleaguered. 



This gets me to the second issue I would like to raise. I would 

 like to raise the concern about the sea lions and seals taking — par- 

 ticularly at the mouth of the Klamath River, and that has to do, I 

 believe in part, with the successive years of drought in California, 

 the river levels being exceptionally low. 



As we try to figure out what all the causes are for the loss of 

 salmon populations, this issue continues to come up. I am not only 

 talking about the direct take at the mouth of the river but also 

 marine mammals getting into the fishing equipment, actually rob- 

 bing lines and so on. 



I would like to know if you have any comments on that issue 

 with respect to — particularly with respect to northern California. 



Ms. Foster. Again, that is what I was saying earlier. I think that 

 the pinniped question — I agree it is much broader than just the 

 pinnipeds and the salmon. I think that, through this kind of a task 

 force that the bill talks about, that we would discuss the problem 

 in a much broader sense. 



I think I would go a little further with the bill and perhaps say 

 what the Secretary is expected to do after this interagency task 

 force comes up with some suggestions. 



But it is a broader question, and I think it applies to the situa- 

 tion you are talking about. 



Mr. Hamburg. One of the questions raised to me by the fisher- 

 men is why can't some of these animals be gently relocated to 

 somewhere where they don't have such access to the salmon. Other 

 people say they are just coming back to their natural grounds, and 

 they have as much right to be on the rocks taking food as the fish- 

 ermen do. But it does cause a lot of consternation in my district. 



Ms. Foster. In the Washington situation, our northwest center 

 and regional folks spent a lot of time trying to relocate the pin- 

 nipeds. Our regional director is fond of saying that as the pinniped 

 swam off, he barked at the regional director, saying, see you in 

 three weeks, and he did. 



Mr. Hamburg. Mr. Chairman, do I need unanimous consent to 

 submit some questions for the record on these issues? 



Mr. Studds. Now you have it. 



[The information can be found at the end of the hearing.] 



Mr. Studds. The gentleman from New York, the Chairman of 

 the Fisheries Management Subcommittee. 



Mr. Manton. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 



My understanding is that the existing scheme of things only re- 

 sulted in about 1 percent of existing vessels registering and keep- 

 ing logs, et cetera. Should we look to another system? This, obvi- 

 ously, has not worked very well. 



Ms. Foster. We have an existing registration system we put in 

 place during the exemption. We have about a quarter of the vessels 

 registered that we would have to register. The estimate is, I think, 

 that there is between 50,000 and 80,000 vessels out there and that 

 we have in our data base already about 16,000. So we have a 

 system to build on. 



I would like to point out that my staff would be pleased to get 

 together with the Subcommittee staff to go over what indeed our 



