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East Coast Fisheries Federation, Inc. 



Joint Conimitte Hearing 



Committees on National Security; Resources; and Energy and Environment 



January 22, 1996 Naval War College Newport RI 



Thank you, Mr Chairman My name is James O'Malley I work for the East Coast Fisheries 

 Federation The federation is a trade association of commercial vessels and their crews, 

 processors and wholesalers, support services, and local fishermen's organizations and 

 cooperatives in Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York and New Jersey Member vessels fish 

 from Georges Bank and the Gulf of Maine through the Mid- Atlantic to Cape Hatteras. We fish 

 for traditional groundfish such as cod and whiting and flounder, but also for export species like 

 butterfish, squid, tuna, mackerel and herring, as well as many others. 



The greatest opportunities we will have in fisheries will require new sources of data and 

 information for fishermen, for scientists, and for fishery managers. And that is the key message 

 I would like you to take away with you today Our greatest need is more information about 

 what is going on in the ocean, and we would get that if we had access to the kind of 

 technology we all believe exists within the Department of Defense 



For example, the use of satellite data could be extremely useful in the management, 

 conservation and protection of several species that are of considerable commercial value to all 

 of us, such as large pelagics like tuna and shark, and smaller ones like mackerel and herring. 

 Aerial surveys of bluefin tuna, for example, are limited in time and space, and you miss fish or 

 perhaps double-count them 



Satellite data could also be used to assess the oceanographic conditions we associate with 

 concentrations offish, such as algae blooms, temperature gradients, and gyres. We know, for 

 example, that the success of a spawning year for some species depends on the right conditions 

 of tide and wind to carry eggs to a friendly bottom structure Perhaps satellites could tell us, 

 much sooner than our present capabilities, of the likely conditions of next year's fish stocks 



P.O. Box 649 • Narragansett, RI 02882 

 Phone: (401) 782-3440 • Fax: (401) 782-4840 



