75 



Act of 1972 (MMPA), and necessarily by the recent Federal court 

 actions. 



In 1976. there were about 139 tuna seiners and about 74 bait boats 

 in the U.S. tuna fleet. But the real measure of fishing power is rep- 

 resented by the fish catch capacity of these vessels and not by the 

 number of vessels. The frozen tuna carrying capacity of the 139 

 purse seine vessels was about 119,000 tons, while that of the 71 bait 

 boats was only about 0.000 tons. This is why of the 320.000 tons of 

 tuna landed bv the 213 tuna clippers in the "T.S. fleet, only 20,000 

 tons was caught by the 74 baitboats. 



Thus, for 1976. the 139 seiners in the U.S. tuna fleet caught about 

 300,000 tons of tuna or about 89 percent of all tuna landed bv U.S. 

 fishermen and almost half of all tuna consumed in the United States. 



This production resulted in about 15 million cases of tuna or about 

 three-quarters of a billion cans of tuna. IVo estimate that each fish- 

 erman abroad these 139 tuna clippers provided enough canned tuna 

 last, year for about 42.000 fellow citizens. 



So far in 1977. the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission 

 (IATTC) reports that tuna production in the Eastern Pacific regu- 

 latory area for the tuna fleets of 12 nations is down 10,600 tons from 

 1976. All but four vessels in the U.S. tuna purse seine fleet, are fish- 

 ing in the Eastern Pacific. 



Based upon reports compiled by National Marine Fisheries Serv- 

 ice (NMFS). landings by the purse seine fleet in California is down 

 about 50 percent in 1977 from 1976. Our estimates at the ATA is 

 that at present the fleet's production is down 15,000 tons in 1977 from 

 1976. 



We believe that these reports of reduced fish catches for the U.S. 

 tuna fleet thus far in 1977 has been caused by the inability of the 

 U.S. purse seiners to fish tuna associated with porpoise. From Janu- 

 ary 1 to January 25, the U.S. fleet was unable to fish tuna associated 

 with porpoise. Since January 28, the fleet has been totally confused 

 by the legal actions taken by the Circuit Court of Appeals in "Wash- 

 ington, D.C. This confusion and uncertainty continues to this day. 

 The ATA is still waiting for the Government to file its final regula- 

 tions under the MMPA so that it can file its application for a 

 General Permit. 



Prior representations by Government attorneys in stating that a 

 general permit would be issued at the earliest by mid-April was 

 based on the view that the final regulations would be published by 

 February 11, 1977. 



Should the tuna fleet be denied to fish for tuna associated witli 

 porpoise until late April, then the fishermen will have only about 4-~> 

 days of weather and sea conditions free of tropical cyclone and 

 hurricane activity in the area from Baja Calif, to Guatemala — an im- 

 portant yellowfin tuna fishing area. 



At present, the estimated production of yellowfin tuna for the 

 international tuna fleet in the area of the Eastern Pacific designated 

 by the IATTC and known as the Commission Yellowfin Regulatory 

 Area (CYRA) is about 2.000 tons behind the 1976 production for n 

 comparable time period. This indicates that the foreign fleets of 11 

 other countries are doing well. In 1976, the total catch of yellowfin 



'I4-88G— 77 6 



