460 



Mr. D' Amours. Our next witness is Mr. Jim Costakes, who is 

 here representing the New Bedford Seafood Council, and also rep- 

 resenting the Seafood Producers Association. 



STATEMENT OF JAMES COSTAKES 



Mr. Costakes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 



I appreciate being able to come here to testify. I think what I 

 want to more or less indicate are the views of the fishermen. I will 

 be very brief. 



Mr. D' Amours. That is exactly why you are here, so we will have 

 some input from the fishing community. Your testimony is short 

 enough. If you want to go ahead with it, you can. 



Mr. Costakes. Thank you. 



My name is James Costakes. I am the director of the New Bed- 

 ford Seafood Council, which is made up of aproximately 150 vessel 

 owners and 1,600 Teamster crewmen who fish out of New Bedford, 

 Mass. I am also the general manager of the New Bedford Seafood 

 Producrs Association. 



In terms of value of landings, New Bedford is the third largest 

 commercial fishing port in the United States. It is our fishermen 

 who go out to Georges Bank and who will be most affected by any 

 oilspills or other environmental disasters that may occur on the 

 bank. 



As the committee knows, there has been a long battle to prevent 

 or restrict the oil and gas drilling activities on Georges Bank. The 

 creation of the biological task force was part of a compromise be- 

 tween the competing interests. Its purpose is to determine the envi- 

 ronmental status of Georges Bank prior to oil and gas activities 

 and thereafter monitor the bank to detect any changes. 



To date there have been only a few exploratory drills made on 

 Georges Bank. There are no offshore rigs currently in production. 

 The fishermen I have spoken to have not noticed any difference in 

 their landings that can be attributed to the drilling operations. We 

 have not seen any adverse effects of the drilling activities. This is 

 due to the small number of exploratory drilling rigs in operation, 

 the brief period of time they have been in operation, and the fact 

 that no spills or other major mishaps have occurred. 



Although I am glad to report that we have not had any prob- 

 lems, the fact that we have not noticed any at this stage should not 

 be grounds to reduce our preventive and monitoring activities. As 

 additional lease sales are being proposed, we can expect more activ- 

 ity. More diligent efforts will be required. 



The fishery resources of Georges Bank are too valuable to take 

 any chances with. According to the National Marine Fisheries 

 Service, in 1982 the New England region had commercial fisheries 

 landings of 687 million pounds valued at $374 million. 



A very significant percentage of the total regional landings are 

 of fish caught on Georges Bank. New Bedford alone had landings of 

 $84.6 million. Gloucester had landings valued at $44.5 million. 



The economic ripple effect of the fishing industry is significant. 

 It is estimated that the direct ripple effect of the fish harvesting 

 industry is 3 V2 to 4 times the value of the fish landed. In addition 

 to the fishermen working on the vessels, there are shoreside jobs in 



