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T am secretary-treasurer of the Fishermen's [Tnion, AFL CIO. 

 I find myself here unprepared as far as a written statement is con- 

 cerned, but, for the record, 1 will make a brief statei lent for myseli 

 and my colleague, Jack Tarentino. 

 Werepresenl L,600tuna fishermen. 



As labor leaders, we are interested in jobs for our fishermen who 

 are the besl tuna fishermen in the world and the only true sincere 

 conservationists and environmental is< fishermen. 



We have proven this not by word.-, bul by our actions, by net 

 modifications, improved porpoise-saving methods and many, many 

 other innovat ions. 

 We want relief now. 

 AYe want to survive. 



Our industry of fishing is all our fishermen know. 

 Don't put ns out of the fishing business. 

 Thank yon. 



Mr. Leggett. We are not. 

 Mr. Felando. I have a copy of my statement. 

 Mr. Leggett. It will ho made a part of the record. 

 Mr. Felando. T will not read my entire statement. 

 T would like to talk about the U.S. tuna fleet and its production. 

 There are about 213 U.S. tuna clippers presently encased in the 

 U.S. tuna fishery located in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean. In 

 1976, Ave estimate that about 834,000 tons of tuna was landed by all 

 U.S. fishermen. 



Of this total landing of tuna, about 3-20.000 tons could be attrib- 

 uted to these 213 U.S. tuna clippers. 

 I provide a table in my statement. 

 I won't go over it in detail. 



It identifies the species and designates the tonnage in short tons. 

 We believe that for 1970. total fresh and frozen tuna imports came 

 to about 302,000 short tons. 



As I said, there are not duties, there are no restrictions with re- 

 spect to fresh and frozen tuna in the United States, so we compete 

 with every other fisherman in the world with respect to the supply 

 of tuna. 



Mr. Leggett. So we import more? 

 Mr. Feeanoo. Xo. 

 We produced 334.000 tons in 1970. 

 Mr. Leggett. I see. including American Samoa ? 

 Mr. Felando. The emphasis on imports is with respect to Albacore 

 and light meat. 



Ours is concentrated o?i yellowfin. 



Mr. Leggett. With respect to yellowfin. yon show that about 7"> 



percent, of that is domestically produced, while 



Mr. Felando. 196.000 for the domestic production and the foreign 

 production is 72.9. 



I am sure we can figure it out with the percentage-. 



An analysis of these statistics reveals the importance of the purse 



seine vessel segment of the U.S. tuna fleet to the supply of tuna to 



the U.S. consumer. It is the production of this part of the T T .S. tuna 



fleet that is adversely affected by the Marine Mammal Protection 



