[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 130 (Thursday, September 19, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10932-S10934]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SUSTAINABLE FISHERIES ACT
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senators who
wish to speak on S. 39 have 10 minutes.
Several Senators addressed the Chair.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alaska.
Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I again thank the people who were
involved in this. As I said, prior to the passage of the bill, this is
a bill we have worked out in 18 months. When it was previously before
the Senate, it took 5 years. This has required a tremendous amount of
staff time.
I am particularly indebted to my staff people:
Trevor McCabe and Earl Comstock; and to Tom Melius, who has worked
with the chairman of the committee, Senator Pressler, and Penny Dalton,
who has worked with Senator Kerry and Senator Hollings from on the
committee.
Let me also thank Jeanne Bumpus with Senator Gorton; Justin LeBlanc
with Senator Murray; Margaret Commisky and Scott Atkinson with Senator
Inouye; Clark LeBlanc who is with Senator Snowe; Mike Parks and Darla
Romfo with Senator Breaux; Glenn Merrill and Alex Elkan, Sea Grant
fellows with the Commerce Committee; Peter Hill and Tom Richy on
Senator Kerry's staff; Alex Buell on Senator Wyden's staff; Carl
Biersak, who has worked with the majority leader, Senator Lott; Carol
Dubard with Senator Hutchison; Rick Murphy with Senator Chafee; and
Wayne Boyles with Senator Helms.
Mr. President, this bill would not have come before us if it had not
been for the tremendous support from the Marine Fish Conservation
Network. I particularly want to thank Greenpeace and the Alaska Marine
Conservation Network for working very actively for the passage of S.
39, as well as the Center for Marine Conservation and the World
Wildlife Fund.
I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record the entire list
of the fish network, who have all been helpful.
There being no objection, the list was ordered to be printed in the
Record, as follows:
The Marine Fish Conservation Network
(100 Member Organizations Representing More Than Six Million Americans,
as of June, 1996)
Alaska Longline Fishermen's Association
Alaska Marine Conservation Council
Alliance of Rhode Island Saltwater Fishing Clubs
W.H. Amaru Fisheries Research and Conservation
American Oceans Campaign
Atlantic Salmon Federation
Bass Anglers Sportsman's Society
The Billfish Foundation
Biodiversity Legal Foundation
Caribbean Conservation Corporation
Carrying Capacity Network
Center for Marine Conservation
Chesapeake Bay Foundation
City of St. Paul/Bering Sea Coalition
Coastal Waters Project
Columbus (OH) Zoological Gardens
Concerned Citizens of Montauk
Connecticut River Stripped Bass Club
Conservation Law Foundation
Croal Reef Action Group
Deep Pacific Fishing Company
Defenders of Wildlife
Environmental Advocacy Outreach
Environmental Defense Fund
Environmental Solutions International
Federation of Fly Fishers
Fisheries Defense Fund
Fishermen's Emergency Fund
Fish Forever
Fish Unlimited
Florida League of Anglers
Friends of the Earth
Glacier Creek Smoked Salmon
Good Knight Campaign for Protection of Children and the Earth
GreenLife Society--North American Chapter
Greenpeace
Hawaii Fishermen's Foundation
Hawaiian International Billfish Association
Interfaith Council for the Protection of Animals and Nature
International Game Fish Association
Jersey Coast Anglers Association
King and Sons Fishing Company, Inc.
Kodiak Conservation Network
F/V Lady Anne, Inc.
Maine Animal Coalition
Maine Lobsterman's Association
The Marine Mammal Center
Maryland Saltwater Sportfishermen's Association
Massachusetts Audubon Society
Massachusetts Wildlife Federation
Mid-Coast Anglers
Monterey Bay Aquarium
Mystic River-Whitford Brook Watershed Association
Nahant SWIM (Safer Waters in Massachusetts)
The National Aquarium (DC)
NAUI (National Assoc. of Underwater Instructors)
National Audubon Society
National Coalition for Marine Conservation
National Fishing Association
Natural Resource Consultants (Idaho)
Natural Resources Defense Council
New England Aquarium
New England Coast Conservation Association
New Pioneer Co-op Fresh Food Market (IA)
NY/NJ Harbor Baykeeper
New York Sportfishing Federation
North Pacific Fisheries Protection Association
North Pacific Longline Association
Ocean Futures Foundation
Oregon Natural Resources Council
Oregon Trout
Oregon Wildlife Federation
People for Puget Sound
PADI (Professional Assoc. of Diving Instructors)
Project ReefKeeper
Puget Soundkeeper Alliance
Reid International
Salt Water Sportsman Magazine
Save Our Shores
Save the Sound
Save the Bay
Sierra Club
Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund
Society for Conservation Biology
Sport Fishing Institute
Stripers Unlimited
Surfer Environmental Alliance
Surfrider Foundation
Tampa BAYWATCH, Inc.
Trout Unlimited
Trustees for Alaska
United Anglers of California
United Fishermen's Association
Wildlife Conservation Society
World Wildlife Fund
Mr. STEVENS. Let me also thank representatives of the Western Alaska
Fisheries Development Association, the Pacific Seafoods Processors
Association, the Alaska Groundfish Data Bank, the Alaska Draggers
Association, the Petersburg Vessel Owners Association, and the Kodiak
Longline Vessel Owners Association.
Mr. President, I am sad to report that the two people who urged me in
the first instance to support the original act and introduce it in 1971
and then helped us get started once again on the revision that passed
in 1976, Oscar Dyson and Harold Sparck, two Alaskans, are now deceased.
I do want to recognize their memory in connection with this
legislation, which they have also been instrumental in creating.
Mr. President, I will not take all the time, but I do once again want
to thank my good friend from Massachusetts. Had it not been for his
determination and consistency, we would not be where we are today,
having passed a significant, bipartisan bill.
[[Page S10933]]
But beyond that, Mr. President, I want to issue one word of warning
as I close. We have passed a bill to try to eliminate waste in the
fisheries off our shores. Mr. President, if these mechanisms we have
adopted through compromise do not work, I intend to be back with a
stronger bill because it is the area off my shores, the shores of
Alaska, that produce over half of the fisheries of this country.
The waste has become just unacceptable, totally unacceptable. When we
reached the level of 500 to 700 million pounds a year of fish being
wasted because of the distant water fishing vessels, we have reached a
level beyond our acceptance in the fisheries.
Mr. President, I introduced the original 200-mile bill in 1971
because I flew from Kodiak to the Pribilof Islands and counted over 100
Japanese trollers off our shores. We sought to find a way to eliminate
that scourge on our fisheries, and we did so by passing, finally 5
years later, the bill that is now known as the Magnuson Act, at my
request.
That law brought into effect a new distant water fleet. It is the
factory trollers. And 75 percent of that waste comes from the factory
trollers. If they do not put their business back in order and get away
from bottom line fisheries and start thinking about the conservation of
our fisheries and the sustainability of our fisheries, we will be back
because Alaska will not put up with the total depletion of our
fisheries.
There are no known species off our shores that are overfished now.
Several may be very close to it. The day that we get one--even one--
caused by factory trollers, I will be back with another bill, because
we demand that the reproductive capability of our fisheries be
sustained. That is what this bill does. That is the intent of the bill.
If it does not work, Mr. President, thanks to God and my Alaska voters,
I will be here 6 more years, and we will see to it that a bill will
pass that will eliminate these vessels that are destroying the
reproductive capability of the North Pacific. Thank you, Mr. President.
Mr. KERRY. Mr. President, how much time remains on the 10 minutes
allotted?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Four minutes.
Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I used too much time. Mr. President, I
ask unanimous consent for an extra 5 minutes on this bill.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. KERRY. Mr. President, I thank the distinguished Senator from
Alaska for his comments. It is my hope that both God and some other
voters will help me be back here to work with him.
Let me just say, Mr. President, I thank the Senator for his comments
about our joint work. It has been a great privilege working with the
Senator from Alaska and his staff in an effort to try to move this very
important piece of legislation. I think it is fair to say--and I know
the Senator from Alaska will join me in this--a lot of countries around
the world were waiting to see how the United States was going to
respond to its crisis of dealing with its fishing stocks and the
protection of our available fishing grounds from the waters off Alaska
to the waters south all the way to San Diego, the tuna fleet, all
through the gulf coast, the Gulf of Mexico, around to Florida all the
way up to Charleston, SC, North Carolina, New York, New Jersey, to
Maine.
We have had different interests that have been tugging within this
bill. We have commercial fishermen tugging against recreational
fishermen. This is a $50 billion a year industry to the United States
on the commercial side and it is a $7 billion industry with respect to
the recreational side. There are enormous pressures by that monetary
interest to continue to deplete. But this is a finite resource, and we
have to manage it.
Other countries are wrestling with this. Great Britain is doing a
buyout. Iceland, Russia, other nations, Norway, all of them have
implemented particular environmental concerns. What we did here today
was important to say that we are going to be a leader in that
international effort and that we are serious. I join the Senator from
Alaska in saying that this must work. If it does not, we will come back
with tougher measures in order to guarantee that the stocks are able to
replenish and that fishing is an ongoing effort.
I simply repeat what I said yesterday. This is not a signal of an end
to fishing nor even the downturn. If we do our job properly and if the
management councils do their jobs properly, 300,000 new jobs can be
created. This can be a growth industry for the United States of
America. That is our goal.
I want to thank the Senator from Louisiana for his continued and
ever-present counsel and assistance in these efforts. He understands
the issues as well as any person in the Senate, and his help has been
instrumental in building the consensus that we brought here today. I
yield the remainder of the time to the Senator from Louisiana.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Louisiana.
Mr. BREAUX. Mr. President, I will just take a moment, but I say, that
if the work on this legislation is any measure of the voters of Alaska
and voters of Massachusetts, both of our colleagues will in fact be
back in the next Congress to work on this legislation and many other
areas.
I just say to the Senator from Massachusetts, who has just spoken,
that his fisheries area was on the brink of disaster, but because of
his outstanding work on this legislation, I suggest that the New
England fisheries are going to be much better off. Maybe not just this
afternoon, but in the next year and the years after that and for the
next several decades, that very vital fisheries area of the United
States, the New England fisheries, is going to be better off because
this bill will provide better science, better management tools for
local fishery management organizations to manage the fisheries in that
area.
I think he deserves a great deal of credit, as does the Senator from
Alaska, for putting together a bill that really has been nonpartisan.
To be able to get the Gulf of Mexico and the New England fisheries to
agree with the fishermen in the Northwest and in Alaska is quite a
political achievement. I want to say to both of these leaders what an
outstanding job they have done in bringing forward this piece of
legislation. Millions and millions will be much better off because of
their work today in this legislation.
I want to also thank two members of my staff, Mr. Mike Parks, who has
worked on this legislation for so long, and also my legislative
director, Ms. Darla Romfo, for stepping in at the last minute. This is
not her area, not her expertise, but she became a very quick expert in
the area of fisheries. We thank them both for their effort. I yield the
floor.
Mr. STEVENS addressed the Chair.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alaska.
Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I see that the chairman of the committee
is here now, Senator Pressler. I want to add to the comments that I
made previously that he and Senator Hollings, the leader and ranking
member on our committee, the Commerce Committee, have allowed us broad
leeway and literally allowed us, with almost all our funding from the
Commerce Committee, to travel in connection with the hearings we
conducted on this bill in the period of 2 years.
Senator Pressler has contributed very greatly to the outcome of this
legislation. I want to acknowledge his leadership as well as his
cooperation. Both he and the staff of the full committee have assisted
us in every way. I do thank him. And Senator Hollings has done the same
for Senator Kerry. So it was with the absolute cooperation of the
leadership of the committee that we were able to achieve the passage of
this bill. It is another bipartisan bill that goes down on the record
of Senator Pressler during his chairmanship of this committee. We look
forward to working with him in the years to come.
I would also like to add my special thanks to Senator Inouye, who has
stood beside us and made a major contribution to this bill.
Mrs. HUTCHISON. I just want to add, once again, my thanks to the
leaders of this bill. We have talked about the importance of this bill
to the management of the waters of the United States. It could not have
come about without the leadership of Senator Pressler, the chairman of
the committee, who really made it come together when there were many
issues still left on the table.
[[Page S10934]]
Certainly, the distinguished chairman of the subcommittee, Senator
Stevens, along with Senator Kerry, Senator Hollings, Senator Breaux,
Senator Lott--everyone worked so hard to do something that I think
really will be for the benefit of all of the people who care about our
waters, and use them either for commercial use or for recreation and
conservation. Kudos to all.
I yield the floor.
____________________