489 



some localities will prefer to fish with small, ineflJicient vessels. The Commission 

 recognizes that changes in the dii'ection of the objectives stated must be made 

 slowly and only where fishermen are ready for such action. 



The Commission gave special attention to the rehabilitation of the U.S. fi.sherie.s, 

 with a far-reaching recommendation that the new agency establish national iwior- 

 ities and policies for fishery development in cooperation with other federal, state, 

 and interstate agencies. Their recommendation follows a strong criticism of the 

 confusing patchwork of state laws and regulations. Further, the Commission 

 recommends that, if necessary, the new agency should be given statutory authority 

 to assume regulation of endangered fisheries. In proposing this measure, the 

 Commission had in mind the precedent set by the Federal Water Pollution 

 Control Act in which the federal agency sets policies and gives the states oppor- 

 tunity to adhere to those policies. 



The Commission recommends that the present legal restrictions on the use 

 of foreign-built vessels be removed. 



The Commission recommends that specific plans be developed for expansion 

 of fisheries where possible. The Commission also recommends greatly increased 

 emphasis on assessing the location and size of the stocks of fish off our coasts 

 and on technology basic to improvements in gear and fi.shing methods. The 

 Commission discusses at some length the problems of producing and using fi.sh 

 protein concentrate and recommends expanded support for the program. I get 

 the impression that there might have been tihe feeling that this program had been 

 oversold. 



With respect to international fisheries management, the Commission rejected 

 giving each coastal nation exclusive access to the living resources over its con- 

 tinental shelf or giving the United Nations title to the living resources beyond 

 the 12-mile limit. Instead, the Commission concluded that U.S. objectives can best 

 be attained by improving and extending the existing international arrangements. 

 It went on to suggest some ways in which these international arrangements 

 should be extended, specifically with regard to fixing national quotas for cod and 

 haddock fishing in the North Atlantic, and that consideration be given to national 

 catch quotas for the high-seas fisheries of the North Pacific, an extension of the 

 quota system which is already in effect for Fraser River salmon, fur seals, and 

 king crab in the Bering Sea. 



The Commission went on to make a number of recommendations to strengthen 

 international fishery organizations. These are in the direction of considering 

 ecological boundaries, in deciding on areas to be included in conventions, estab- 

 lishing conventions before fish stocks are depleted, gaining more adherents to the 

 Convention on Fishing and Conservation of Living Resources of the High Seas, 

 strengthening the scientific staffs and the enforcement programs of the inter- 

 national conventions, and strengthening the arbitration machinery. 



I have the opinion that some of the recommendations about international fish- 

 eries bear on small parts of large complicated problems which the Commission 

 did not investigate in sufiicient depth. The recommendations cannot attract uni- 

 versal approval because of the various problems in different parts of our country. 

 Their principal point of extending the existing framework of specific bilateral or 

 multilatei-al agreements is, however, an approach that all U.S. fisheries interests 

 can back. 



With regard to aquaculture, the Commission looked through aqua-colored 

 glasses which obscured the very difficult technical and economic problems in- 

 volved. They did recommend strengthening the programs and removal of the 

 legal and institutional barriers that inhibit aquaculture. 



The Commission made many other recommendations that touch on fisheries 

 matters, but the above are what I consider to be the more significant recommen- 

 dations related to the fisheries of the Pacific Northwest. The most significant of 

 all, however, is the proopsal to establish the agency, out of Interior, closer to the 

 President, with much more weight in the government. 



The move out of interior to an independent agency would remove fisheries from 

 Tinder about two layers of administrators who have scant knowledge of fisheries 

 or international problems and who are under major political pressure to preserve 

 the environment. The Secretary of the Interior, for example, has officially recog- 

 nized an endangered species of birds but not the waste of a major fish resource 

 thrnuiih nonutilization. 



The proposed new agency would be much larger and able to develop its whole 

 program around clear and specific objectives related to the use of the oceans. 

 The fish are our major oceanic resource and the fisheries a major reason for pub- 



