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Mr. DeFazio. Thank you very much. 



STATEMENT OF THANE TIENSEN 



Mr. TiENSEN. Thank you. 



I am Thane Tiensen. I am Council for Salmon For All, voice of 

 the Columbia River commercial fishing industry. And my remarks 

 are principally confined to the impact that the tremendous decline 

 in tne Northwest has had on that industry and on the related 

 sports fishing industry, and on the communities that depend on 

 salmon for their economic vitality and diversity. 



I was struck by the testimony of Mr. Palmisano in the last panel, 

 who talked about the problem, in his perspective, being essentially 

 one of overfishing ana the failure to recognize the importance of 

 fish caught and eaten by marine mammals. I guess the logical con- 

 clusion of that is that if we eliminate all fish that catch fish and 

 eat them, we won't have a problem anymore. We won't have a per- 

 son who cares anymore, it seems to me. 



The coastal communities — some of which are in your district, Mr. 

 DeFazio — we in the Pacific Northwest who depend on salmon, have 

 been frustrated by the inability of our political institution to ad- 

 dress salmon habitat problems. The Pacific Fisheries Management 

 Council that regulates fisheries harvest can not do that. There is 

 no regulatory authority over habitat, it doesn't even have any advi- 

 sory authority over habitat, and that is true of other institutions 

 as well. So recognizing the failure of our institutions, we are struck 

 with the existing agency process. 



And certainly the testimony you have heard this morning, the 

 testimony that you presumably will hear in the future, and your 

 own knowledge of the problem, tells you that we have got to ad- 

 dress the problem with habitat on public lands. 



I won't chronicle the abuses. But certainly it is common sense 

 and conventional wisdom now that we have to have some kind of 

 program that addresses the habitat degradation. And the best way 

 to address that problem is through the BLM and through the For- 

 est Service and other Federal public lands agencies that have the 

 ability to institute further protective measures through road build- 

 ing, and creating riparian barriers in harvest of timber. And if we 

 don't do that, we very simply will not have any salmon stocks left 

 on the coast. 



We are talking about this year, conservation groups calling for 

 zero harvest. No fish whatsoever or coho this year in the Pacific 

 Northwest to take care of those stocks. And apparently there is 

 going to be a petition to list all Oregon coho in the Endangered 

 Species Act. And regardless of whether that occurs, the fact of the 

 matter is that fishing is going to go down. But even if there was 

 no harvest, the fish would continue to go down. 



I urge you and implore you through your congressional oversight 

 responsibilities to put pressure on these agencies, particularly with 

 the new administration. We would all like to believe with the 

 quote, "new sheriff in town" that there would be changes in the in- 

 stitution. 



We are going to see the budget requests made and actions taken 

 that actually result in increased habitat protection and a return in 

 salmon stocks. And if for no other reason than doing that with 



