54 



and must face threats to their habitat. Frankly, the only way we would be able to 

 solve all of these problems would be to stop all fishing, shoot all the marine mam- 

 mals, and evacuate all human beings from the Columbia River basin — just defore 

 we blew up the dams. However, that is not a realistic solution. 



The only way we will be able to solve the problem is by working together. We 

 can't do it by pointing fingers and casting blame. As has already been demonstrated 

 in the district of our colleague from California, Mr. Hamburg, we can act jointly to 

 help restore our rivers and our fisheries. I hope the witnesses will keep this in mind 

 as we proceed with the hearing today. 



Thank you. 



Ms. Furse. There are so many questions I would like to ask you, 

 but I am going to direct this to Mr. Dulcich. 



Mr. Dulcich, first of all, appreciate the specificity of your testi- 

 mony. It was very, very helpful that you outlined it by section. 



The nursery ground issue is one that I have not seen particularly 

 mentioned elsewhere. I just want to ask you quickly, in your opin- 

 ion how much will it take to identify the grounds? 



What kind of protections will be necessary, in your opinion? 



And also, do you think that there will be support for such protec- 

 tion from fisher groups in your opinion? 



Mr. Dulcich. Congresswoman Furse, first of all, that is a three- 

 part question, and I will take each piece. The grounds to be identi- 

 fied along the lower — my knowledge of the industry is the Lower 

 48, that is off the States of Washington, Oregon and California, so 

 my remarks would be strictly in those areas. 



I think currently there are areas that have been identified as 

 spawning areas where these species (bottom fish) congregate and 

 where fishermen are currently targeting upon specific species. I 

 think we can identify 50 to 60 percent of them fairly readily, and 

 with support of some other individuals I think we can identify 

 almost all of the spawning areas. 



On protection, addressing the protection issue, we feel we need to 

 virtually eliminate fishing which is not going to be very well re- 

 ceived within the fishing community during times of spawning. 

 The stressed stocks, such as petrale sole, Dover species or deep 

 water complex. What would be the support within the industry. If 

 you take it by segment for someone that is a futurist and realizes 

 the need for conservation, I think it would be well received from 

 fishermen, and I speak for them (fishermen), too. 



There is a lot of economic stress right now within our industry, 

 and because of that we (the industry) are looking short-term, not 

 long-term, and as a steward we feel our company needs to look 

 long-term and take the economic difficulties that are going to defi- 

 nitely occur with something like this. 



Ms. Furse. Thank you. I do have other questions, but I will 

 submit them for the record, particularly to Mr. Rasmussen, and I 

 wanted to thank everybody for their wonderful testimony. 



Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman. 



Mr. Manton. Thank you. We are sorry that we couldn't have 

 about ten more minutes, but we are instructed that we have to get 

 out. I see Colonel Sattler from the Marine Corps eyeing us in the 

 back, so I will turn back the Chair to our Full Committee Chair- 

 man, Mr. Studds. 



The statement of Mr. Spain will be submitted for the record. 



[The statement of Mr. Spain may be found at end of hearing.] 



