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Testimony of Glen Spain (PCFFA) 



— The Magnuson Act needs to have habitat protection authority : 

 Under the Magnuson Act as currently written, a fisheries managers' 

 only possible response to habitat problems elsewhere is to clamp down 

 further on harvest quotas. However, there is no evidence to support 

 the unfounded assumption that restricting harvest quotas has helped 

 restore population levels. At best, cumulative and continuing habitat 

 losses have swamped whatever small improvements might have been 

 expected from reductions in quotas. 



What has happened, however, is that the fishing industry is being 

 systematically strangled to death, while the real problem land abusers 

 inland have gotten off scott free for decades with practices that 

 continue to degrade water and destroy the last remaining fish habitat. 



The Magnuson Act should be rewritten to provide for inland 

 habitat protection authority in the PFMC and NMFS. Only in this way 

 will the real issues — inland habitat losses — be addressed. It is 

 clear to us that if salmon are to be conserved, much less "managed," 

 that the Regional Councils must have some say over all the factors 

 affecting the health of these populations. Under current law, the 

 Council can restrict fishermen to the point where there is no fishery, 

 but fish populations will continue to dwindle to the point that the 

 only protection left is a listing under the ESA. Clearly there has to 

 be a better way to conserve and manage our fisheries than by creating 

 a crisis. At the very least, the Councils should be provided the type 

 of consultative authority lead agencies are provided under Section 7 

 of the ESA. With that authority the Councils will have the ability to 

 act to protect and maintain fish populations before the stocks have 

 declined to the point where the only recourse becomes an ESA listing. 



— ESA does not contain recovery plan deadlines : Under the ESA as 

 currently written, there are no recovery plan deadlines. The major 

 improvements we feel should be introduced into the ESA in the 

 reauthorization process would require that species recovery proceed 

 more rapidly and across the landscape — including on private lands. 



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