205 



To address this concern, the Commission recommended that 

 Magnuson Act regulations be developed to require the 

 relationship between fisheries yields and marine mammal food 

 requirements be taken in account in setting commercial fishing 

 catch limits. This action has not been taken. 



In recent months, Alaska Natives have once again called 

 for Congressional action under the Magnuson Act to foster 

 ecosystem-based research and management and to prevent fishing 

 from occurring at levels that deplete other resources. As 

 stated in testimony before the House Merchant Marine and 

 Fisheries Committee that: "[ conventional wisdom is telling 

 everyone that the [pollock] fishery is healthy in the Bering 

 Sea but . . . fourteen key species are in decline, at least 

 six of which are in the pollock food web." 58 These systemic 

 indicators are ignored at the peril of those dependent on the 

 ecosystem, and its was recommended that the species-specific 

 approach to management under the Magnuson Act give way to a 

 more progressive ecosystem management regime. 59 



Similar testimony was submitted before the Senate 

 Commerce Committee that •• [e]cosystem approaches to research 



Hearing on Reauthorization of the Magnuson Fiaherv Conservation and 

 Management Act before the Housb Subcommit t ee on Fisheries Management. House 

 Committee on Merchant Marine a n d Fisheries . April 21, 1993 (testimony of 

 Larry Merculieff). 



59! 



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