271 



the National Marine Fisheries Service and did not prohibit fishing mixed 

 schools. The latest proposal of the National Marine Fisheries Service was a 

 near Solomonic decision which came within 4% of using half the combined 

 totals of the Judge's decision and the Service's original quota but retaining 

 the prohibition on mixed schools fishing. Even then, nothing could be done 

 on this until mid April which meant another 6 weeks of economic futility for 

 the purse seine fleet. 



The United States Court of Appeals took a positive step this week to permit 

 fishermen to operate under the National Marine Fisheries latest proposal as 

 a temporary plan. 



It did so without resolving the critical problem of permitting vessels to set 

 on mixed schools containing Eastern Spinners or commenting on the low quota 

 on White Belly Spinners and its effects. 



The industry has pointed out that a decision to allow fishing with the 

 retention of the ban on setting on mixed schools would be a pyrrhic victory 

 and set the stage for further economic loss. 



These proceedings are now a way of life and sap the vitality of the fishery. 

 No industry can long survive in an atmosphere of uncertainty where ability 

 to operate is subject to month to month review and determination. Today the 

 rules are that we cannot operate on an economically viable basis. 



It is no longer a matter of how progressive, efficient or competitive we are. 

 It is a matter of how convincing we are in these manifold proceedings. Fish- 

 ing strategy is now determined by the courts and not by the skilled men who 

 understand the sea and its inhabitants. 



Because of this, the fishery cannot use the skills and knowledge of the sea 

 and its resources, including the conservation regime. 



IV. CONSERVATION, RESEARCH AND QUOTAS 



What many people do not know is that tuna people are not strangers to 

 marine science, marine scientists or matters involving marine populations and 

 conservation of them. 



The United States tuna fishery was one of the first in the world, if not the 

 first to cause research to be undertaken on its resources long before any 

 problems emerged. 



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, the Commission began its work. 



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

 knowledge of yellowfin tuna populations within an area called the Commis- 

 sion's Yellowfin Regulatory Area (C.Y.R.A.) and that information required 

 a catch quota in excess of 79.300 tons for 1966. We were told that a catch in 

 excess of 79,300 tons would begin the ruin of the fishery. 



In the ten years since 1966. the amount of the quota has progressively in- 

 creased. Last year at its annual meeting in Nicaragua, the Commission estab- 

 lished a quota with an upper limit for 1977 of 210.000 tons for C.Y.R.A. area 

 smaller than that in 1966. We now have an area which is smaller and a quota 

 which is 165% greater than 10 years ago. 



It is both evident and agreed that there is a small data base for porpoise 

 population estimates. Inadequacies in data were deplored at the La Jolla 

 Workshop of Experts in July 1076. The first National Marine Fisheries Service 

 proposed 1977 quota of 29.91S porpoises (with a greater number allowed for 

 foreign fishermen beyond United States control) was based upon a virtually 

 certain estimate of optimum sustainable population. Tn laymen's terms T am 

 advised that this means there would about 1 chance in an astronomical 1.600 

 of anything adverse happening to the porpoise stocks. The proposed total 

 quota has been increased (though still subject to opposition and to the mixed 

 schools prohibition) and therefore the odds would ehange. 



What emerges clearly to the United States purse seine tuna fishery wh'eh 

 will be adversely affected bv the proposed 1977 quota and partieularlv by the 

 accompanying prohibition of fishing yellowfin in association with mixed schools 

 of porpoise are these things : 



