81 

 There are foreign operators that have American skippers and 



O] 



American men on°the boat, but porpoise fishing is really a team 

 effort. 



Tf yon saw the film, it would show that. 



Yes; there is a great dependence on a few individuals, but por- 

 poise fishing, more so than school fishing, is a team effort so. there- 

 fore, you have to have a lot of trained individuals besides just a 

 skipper or head boss or chief engineer, so while the desire might be 

 there on the part of the foreign fishermen T don't think they have the 

 talent, as yet to equal the ability of the U.S. fleet to release porpoises 

 effectively. 



Mr. Leggett. In light of the agreement at Managua, which has 

 already been mentioned, where the tropical tuna group has agreed 

 to study this problem and come up with some recommendations, and 

 in light of the configuration that was imposed to the American 

 fishermen, do von have information that the foreign fishermen are, 

 in fact, taking' action to attempt to moderate their take of porpoises? 



Mr. Felando. T think you have to understand the foreign fisher- 

 men will try to duplicate the gear. 



^Ye see evidence of them purchasing small mesh, for instance, the 

 Medina panel, but it is sometimes not just the purchase of the gear 

 that effects the release of the porpoise. It is a combination of a lot 

 of factors. 



I think the skippers can answer that question better than I as to 

 what factors achieve success, because we see evidence of foreign fish- 

 ermen adopting that type of net. 



They have to if they want to compete with us effectively. 



I don't want to cast the foreign fishermen as just the ones who wear 

 black hats because our basic belief is that there is a very strong eco- 

 nomic motivation for fishermen, whether it is U.S. or foreign, to 

 release the porpoise, not only for the long-term benefits, but for the 

 fact that when you release' porpoise effectively, that is. to release 

 them alive, you can complete your set faster and then you are in a 

 position to make another set. so I think there is desire. 



We would like to see more action on the part of not only the 

 fishermen, but foreign governments. 



I just want to say that I believe that the foreign fishermen should 

 not be cast as the" bad character in this saga, but the fact is that 

 the U.S. fishermen are just better trained, more experienced, and 

 more talented so they arc much more effective than foreign fisher- 

 men in releasing porpoise. 



Mr. Leggett. One small question. 



There was evidence that the average backtime of the Elizabi fit 

 CJ. was 13.38 minutes. 



Is that a regular amount of time or an unusually long time? 



How does that compare with our other statistics? 



Mr. Alversox. Through the cooperation of the National Marine 

 Fisheries Service, we made a call and checked the time. 



It was 11 minutes for the fleet vis-a-vis the 13 I believe some odd 

 seconds for the Elizabeth CJ. 



Mr. Leggett. Would it be your opinion that that extra minute and 

 38 seconds had anything to 'do with reduced porpoise mortality? 



