12 



Coast, there are likely to be allocation issues. However, if amend- 

 ment one is prepared under the Magnuson Act required adherence 

 to national standards, a provision unique to the Council process, is 

 assurance that allocation issues will not out-weight protection of 

 the fisheries. 

 Again, I thank you for the opportunity to offer this testimony. 

 [The prepared statement of Dr. James H. Gilford follows:] 

 Mr. Saxton. Thank you very much. Mr. Rhodes, you may pro- 

 ceed. 



STATEMENT OF ROBERT "DUSTY" RHODES, BLUEFISH 

 COMMITTEE, MID-ATLANTIC FISHERY MANAGEMENT COUNCIL 



Mr. Rhodes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Congressman Pallone 

 and staff You have my written testimony which I trust you will 

 put into the minutes and I am going to comment on three points 

 briefly relative to the three issues which you raised in your invita- 

 tion. 



The bluefish stocks may very well be in trouble but they may not 

 necessarily be in biological trouble. There are some severe ques- 

 tions as to whether the science that we have to date adequately re- 

 flects the condition of these stocks and I think that with bluefish 

 more than any stock we have an opportunity to over-regulate and 

 we need to move forward very cautiously. 



As a member of the management process I am concerned that 

 the absence of hard data concerning why these fish have seemed 

 to be less available in recent years than before might lead us to as- 

 sume over fishing is a major ingredient when in fact it is not. 



There may be one answer to help alleviate that problem. As we 

 sit here today the Fishery Service, the Commission and the Council 

 are working together in the development of an integrated data base 

 and an information system that would put along the entire east 

 coast a common data for everyone to make decisions from and I can 

 assure you from my days in data processing that there is nothing 

 more important to decisionmaking than an integrated data base 

 and common information. 



I can think of no better time however to incorporate in that data 

 base information which we call on the water information, here- 

 tofore called anecdotal information. There is a body of credible in- 

 formation available from serious recreational and commercial fish- 

 ermen that has been ignored far too long. 



I can think of no better time than during the development of this 

 data base and during the questions on bluefish, an excellent fish 

 to use that information with, no better time to incorporate that 

 data and I urge you folks to provide input into this whole process 

 to ask for the inclusion of this important data which has too long 

 been ignored. 



I would hope that those of us on the management side who pass 

 judgment on what information to use would not be guilty of NIH, 

 not invented here, and would not continue to ignore that important 

 body of evidence. This is the time to incorporate it while the data 

 base and the system is being developed and bluefish are a particu- 

 lar stock where I think that data can be very valuable. 



The second question deals with the movement of the responsibil- 

 ity of the plan from the Council to the Commission. I oppose that 



