pie in the room know that we are very fortunate to have as the 

 Chairman of this Fisheries Subcommittee the only subcommittee in 

 the House of Representatives that deals with fisheries issues, Mr. 

 Saxton. 



I certainly don't remember and don't know if there has ever been 

 a chairman of the Fisheries Subcommittee that has been from the 

 State of New Jersey. If it wasn't for the fact that he was the Chair- 

 man, it is unlikely that we would even be able to have this hearing 

 today here in New Jersey on bluefish management. 



So I want to thank him again for being the Chairman and also 

 for having this hearing which many of you in the audience have re- 

 quested for some time and we are finally here doing it, which is 

 great. 



The second thing I wanted to say is that obviously bluefish is 

 very important and I don't have to tell anybody in this room. I was 

 talking to my Sea Grant assistant here, Mark Chandler on my 

 right, on the way down here today telling him about the historic 

 significance of the bluefish and the fishery. 



I have prints in my office that date from the 19th Century about 

 abundance of bluefish being caught in Asbury Park and, if course, 

 you can go way back, you can go back to Colonial times and the 

 records about how important the fishery has been to the Jersey 

 Shore area. It is also one of my favorite things to eat. I love to eat 

 bluefish. 



But let me say this though in terms of our hearing today, three 

 things if I could, briefly. One is that in terms of any kind of man- 

 agement plan, I think it is very crucial that NMFS acquire what 

 I call a clear scientific assessment for the decline in bluefish stock. 



I have read some of the testimony already and there is obviously 

 a big difference of opinion about what we are doing with our man- 

 agement plan right now. On the one hand, the NMFS people who 

 feel that some sort of bag limit or perhaps a minimum size is im- 

 portant to address the decline in the fishery; on the other hand, 

 some of our local people representing fishing groups saying that 

 that has nothing to do with the decline, that the decline are based 

 on factors that are not going to be addressed by any kind of man- 

 agement plan that looks to bag limits or minimum size. 



So there is clearly a problem because we don't know what the 

 scientific reason is for the decline and I think it is crucial that 

 NMFS move in that direction or in some way show convincingly 

 what is causing the decline because otherwise, how do you address 

 it with the management plan. 



The second thing I was going to say is that I have been very dis- 

 turbed by the suggestion that somehow the Mid-Atlantic Council is 

 going to get out of the bluefish management. In other words, it 

 would be turned over solely to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries 

 Commission. 



The local fishermen obviously don't like that because they feel 

 that there is going to be less public input than there would be 

 under the current joint management plan and I would prefer to see 

 that that joint management plan continue. 



I know that the proposal to change that is coming from the Ad- 

 ministration for some streamlining or reinventing government pur- 

 pose. I don't see how it helps to reinvent government if it is going 



