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our surimi vessels in the 1993 whiting fishery. Instead, we 

 planned to meet our customers' orders for surimi by producing 

 whiting in our Newport plant. When the Secretary published the 

 final whiting rule, Arctic Alaska had to reverse its business plan 

 to produce surimi at-sea rather than offshore. We had to 

 immediately locate our crew members, provision the vessels, arrange 

 for packaging materials, etc. As a result, only two of our vessels 

 participated in the fishery. They were dispatched a week late to 

 fish in what turned out to be a three-week long season. Our 

 Newport operations were curtailed, and Arctic Alaska was unable to 

 meet its commitments to its customers. 



The point of this anecdote is not to judge the merits of 

 either the Council's or the Secretary's actions, but simply to 

 illustrate that an ITQ system wil take some of the uncertainty out 

 of business decisionmaking and allow for longer term planning. 



Another critical fishery management issue is bycatch 

 reduction, and it is also best addressed by implementing an itq 

 regime. Bycatch is the incidental catch of non-target species; 

 fishermen employing all types of gear encounter bycatch. There are 

 bycatch caps in the North Pacific fisheries. If bycatch limits are 

 exceeded, the target fishery is closed, even if the allowable catch 

 level has not been reached. The bycatch problem is exacerbated 

 under open access since the primary economic incentive is to catch 

 as much of the quota as possible as fast as possible. Perhaps the 

 most effective bycatch avoidance measure is leaving a productive 

 fishing area, if high bycatch is experienced, and finding new 



