70 



recent was a scries <>r bearings before an Administrative Law Judge In which 

 about 3,300 pages of testimony were taken. 



Tbese proceedings are dow ;i way of life and sup the vitality of the industry. 

 No Industry can Long survive in an atmosphere of uncertainty where anility to 

 operate is subject to month to month review and determinatioiL 



It is no longer a matter of bow progressive, efflcienl and competitive we are. 

 it Is a matter of bow convincing we are in these manifold proceedings, Fishing 

 strategy Is determined by the courts. By these means the fishery is essentially 



deprived of the Use of skills and knowledge of the sea and its resources which 



buill an indusl ry. 



IV. BESEABCB AND Ql 01 As 



Tuna people are not strangers to marine scientists, marine science or 

 estimates of populations: 



Before there were any investigations of or much interest in tuna resources 

 and their abundance, the industry urged formation of the Inter-American 

 Tropical Tuna Commission to undertake such work. In late 1948 I appeared 

 before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at the time it approved the 

 basic treaty with Costa Rica to form the Commission. 



In 1949, tlie Commission began its work. 



In 1966, seventeen years later, the Commission decided that it had sufficient 

 knowledge Of yellowfln tuna populations within an area called the Commission's 

 Yellow tin Regulatory Area (C.V.R.A.) and that information required a catch 

 quota of 79,300 tons for 1966. We were told that a catch in excess of T'.t.MOO 

 tons would begin the ruin of the fishery. 



In the ten years since 1966, the amount of the quota has progressively 

 Increased. In October at its annual meeting in Nicaragua, the Commission 

 established a quota with an upper limit for 1077 of 210,000 for C.V.R.A. area 

 smaller than that in 1966. We now have a smaller area and a quota 16595 

 greater. 



It is evident that there is a small data base for porpoise population estimates. 

 Data inadequacies were deplored at the La Jolla Workshop in 1976. The 

 proposed 11)77 quota of 29,918 porpoises (with a greater number allotted for 

 foreign fishing) is based on a virtually certain estimate of optimum sustainable 

 population. In laymen's terms I am advised that this means there is about 

 1 chance in an astronomical 1,600 of anything adverse happening to the porpoise 

 stocks. 



What emerges clearly to the United States purse seine tuna fishery which 

 will be adversely affected by the proposed 1!)77 quota and particularly by the 

 accompanying prohibition of tishing yellowfln in association with mixed schools 

 of porpoise, are these things: 



1. Knowledge of populations is in the early period of development, hut is 

 progressing. 



2. Over conservatism (virtually certain estimates) is used to set quotas. 



3. Time is needed to develop more useful knowledge, tilt hough progressive 

 improvement in porpoise mortality should he expected in that time. 



4. The United States Fleet must he kept operating as the surest and only 

 major source of developing data in that time. 



5. It is possible to maintain a viable United States fishery and to reduce 

 porpoise mortality at the same time. 



V. THE LAW 



The purpose of the law as it relates to porpoises is that mortality he reduced 

 to the lowest practicable level as quickly and effectively as possible. 



Hearings records show that it was not the intent of the law to: (1) Stop 

 tuna tishing: ( •_' ) eliminate the fishery: (3) force removal of the industry: 

 (4) give control to the judiciary; and I 5 i set impossible immediate goals. 



Naively the fishery exacted we would enter into a period of research and 

 improvement in methods to reduce porpoise mortality on a cooperative and 

 progressive basis and that progress in terms of reduced mortality rates would 

 meet the criteria. 



The fishery did not reckon with those forces who demanded that a solution 

 be found immediately, urging that this was the intent of the law. 



