The committee is considering the fishing rights of indigenous is- 

 landers including the Northern Mariana Islands. Our government 

 appreciates the opportunity to address this important topic. 



Let me begin by congratulating the U.S. Coast Guard and the 

 National Marine Fisheries Service for the recent arrest of two Jap- 

 anese fishing vessels. These vessels were illegally fishing in our ex- 

 clusive economic zone and had about 30 tons 01 tuna aboard. Our 

 government commends this enforcement effort. We have urged 

 more energetic surveillance and enforcing restrictions in such iso- 

 lated areas such as our northern islands is very difficult. 



These were not isolated incidents. One vessel admitted to 22 in- 

 cursions into our zone in the last 3 months. The Coast Guard re- 

 ports three other vessels seized, cited and fined in our waters since 

 October 1993. The arrests demonstrate what we have said all 

 along, there are foreign vessels fishing in the EEZ surrounding our 

 islands and our commonwealth is not profiting from their harvest. 

 The five arrests suggests a higher rate of illegal activity than we 

 had suspected. If we were able to license these vessels and collect 

 royalties from them rather than arrest them, there would be a ben- 

 efit to our people from this exploitation. 



We are pleased by these enforcement efforts for another reason. 

 They reveal the existence of substantial tuna stocks. We have been 

 told that the stocks of tuna in our waters were not commercially 

 attractive but we have always thought otherwise. Our people recall 

 the sizable, pre-war commercial fishery; our history tells us that 

 these resources have sustained our people for at least 3,000 years. 

 Our ancestors shared the Pacific traditions of high seas navigation 

 and fishing so proudly revived here in Hawaii with Hokule'a and 

 other seagoing canoes. 



Our high seas fishing tradition was dictated by nature. About 

 175 miles west of our islands lies a chain of submerged sea mounts. 

 These fishing grounds have been known to our people for many 

 generations. One commentator described our ancestors' traditions 

 in this way, 



They own the sea. They own it because they live in it. They own it because until 

 this century, they have been the only people to use it for purposes other than tran- 

 sit. They own it because they have sailed it for thousands of years. They own it be- 

 cause they learned how to tame it and cope with its awesome power before anyone 

 else did. 



During the colonial era, efforts were made to eradicate these sea- 

 faring skills. After the terrible battles of World War II, things 

 began to improve. The United States took power, not as a sov- 

 ereign, but under a United Nations trusteeship. In the trusteeship 

 agreement, the United States recognized our resource rights and 

 obligated itself to protect us against the loss of our resources. 



In 1975, while still subject to the trusteeship agreement, our peo- 

 ple voted to approve our Covenant with the United States. For the 

 first time in 400 years, we regained the right to govern ourselves. 

 The Covenant contains no provision conveying our fishing resources 

 to the Federal Government. The people of the NMI did not, by en- 

 tering into the covenant, vote to grant the Federal Government 

 control of these resources. 



Under international law, indigenous people who do not have the 

 right to vote in national elections, who are not given full and equal 

 representation of the national government, retain jurisdiction of 



