68 



The only frozen salmon now sold in the United States is wild pink salmon from 

 Alaska. 



In Lubec, Peacock will soon have a sophisticated $250,000 machine that will bone 

 and fillet salmon with less labor. He also is developing a freezing technique to de- 

 velop a line of frozen salmon products, something not done in Maine now. 



At Maine Pride, for example, McLemon since November has been selling precut, 

 95-gram fillets that are eventually served on American Airlines' flights. 



The simple act of filleting adds 40 percent to the value of salmon. Last week, 

 United Airlines also agreed to serve Maine salmon on some of its flights. 



"We're at the tip of the iceberg of developing a world-class food industry," 

 McClemon said. 



Senator Kerry. Thank you very much, Mr. Kaehn. Ms. Young. 



STATEMENT OF SHARON YOUNG, ON BEHALF OF THE MARINE 

 MAMMAL PROTECTION COALITION 



Ms. Young. Good afternoon. I am Sharon Young, a wildlife spe- 

 cialist for the International Wildlife Coalition, which is 

 headquartered in Falmouth, MA. I am actually one of your con- 

 stituents. Senator Kerry. 



I appreciate the opportunity to testify today on behalf of the 

 International Wildlife Coalition, the Humane Society of the United 

 States, and a coalition of nine other conservation groups which 

 comprise the Marine Mammal Protection Coalition. We have sub- 

 mitted more detailed written testimony. 



Marine mammal mortality due to fishery interactions is a serious 

 problem — 5 years of data gathering have shown that more than 

 100,000 marine mammal die each year in human interactions, 

 much of it fishery related. In the same 5 years, five more marine 

 mammal stocks have been proposed or accepted for listing as 

 threatened or depleted. 



In an attempt to address the serious problem of marine mammal 

 mortality in the fishing industry, proposals have been submitted by 

 both the National Marine Fisheries Service and the working group. 

 We believe that the working group proposal is actually weaker in 

 many respects than that of the NMFS proposal. For that reason, 

 the majority of conservation groups participating in the negotiation 

 process did not sign on an agreement. 



In order to develop an effective program to govern interaction be- 

 tween marine mammals and commercial fisheries, it is necessary 

 for a regime to be able to, one, identify the scope and nature of ac- 

 tivity of the fishing industries which may interact with them. Two, 

 monitor and quantify interactions with marine mammals. Three, 

 provide realistic measures for reducing incidental take. Four, allow 

 for stricter protection of some stocks, with more fragile populations. 

 And five, generate consistent and adequate funding. 



Both the regime proposed by the National Marine Fisheries Serv- 

 ice and the working group fail in at least some of these areas. 



Registration — the National Marine Fisheries Service proposal 

 provides for mandatory, centralized annual registration of vessels 

 which may interact with marine mammals. This allows data collec- 

 tion on the nature and scope of fishery interactions, and allows 

 ready identification of vessels which may require additional mon- 

 itoring. 



The negotiated document is weaker because it does not have a 

 centralized annual registration, and thus identification of vessels 



