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I believe there is no better example of the progress that 

 has been achieved under the FCMA than Royal Seafoods. Not only 

 did we accept the Congressional invitation to employ the catcher/ 

 processor vessels you helped to build, but we put them into the 

 service you told us to in the FCMA itself with its stated purpose 

 of encouraging development of the bottom fish fishery off 

 Alaska. 2 The fish we catch in our EEZ was once the exclusive 

 domain of foreign catchers and processors. Unlike many of our 

 competitors, our company is fully "Americanized" — not only are 

 we U.S. owned, we are vertically integrated with secondary 

 processing performed here in the United States. Our markets are 

 North American and we supply millions of American consumers with 

 premier quality American seafood products. 



While our company's story illustrates much of what is good 

 about the FCMA, what we have experienced over the last few years 

 dramatically demonstrates its shortcomings. In 1989, for 

 example, our three vessels were operating 12 months per year in 

 the EEZ. We harvested and processed approximately 110,000 metric 

 tons of groundfish and employed 500 full and part time employees. 

 Today, our vessels operate 2-3 months per year. Our production 

 is down to 30,000 metric tons and our employees now number under 

 250. 



What happened? One thing for certain is that our Olympic 

 system of fisheries "management" has resulted in too many boats 



16 U.S.C. § 1801(b) (6) 



