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One suggestion is to expand the section of the Act relating 

 to financial disclosure. Currently the law requires disclosure 

 only of financial interests in harvesting, processing and market- 

 ing activities. We propose that all interests in the fishery be 

 disclosed - personal as well as financial. As an illustration, 

 many councils include sportfishing representatives who have no 

 financial interest in the fisheries, but may have an intense 

 personal interest in an allocation between sport and commercial 

 fishermen. As another example, an environmental representative 

 on a council could argue that membership campaigns by his or her 

 organization, although based on fisheries issues, don't consti- 

 tute a financial interest in harvesting, marketing or processing 

 activities . 



Very few people actually ask to see council members' finan- 

 cial disclosure forms, even though they are readily available. 

 This lack of knowledge contributes to the perception of conflicts 

 where none may exist. There are several ways to resolve the 

 problem. One is to require council members to state on the 

 record, prior to each meeting, any interest they might have in 

 the outcome of each agenda item, and make these statements avail- 

 able to the public as an attachment to the agenda. Another is to 

 provide copies of the broad disclosure statements at each council 

 meeting along with the other public documents available. Still 

 another is to require the disclosures to include the percentage 

 that the listed activity contributes toward the total income of 

 the member or the organization s/he represents. 



We do not believe that the problem of conflicts of interest 

 should be solved by requiring abstention from voting. We know of 

 numerous council members - both past and present - who consis- 

 tently put the health of the resource above personal gain. There 

 are also those who search for solutions that are fair to all 

 parties, rather than those that will be of greatest personal 

 benefit to them. We think council members that are knowledgeable 

 about a fishery should continue to be allowed to vote on actions 

 that affect it. 



A related problem occurs when all the council members from 



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