[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 157 (Sunday, November 9, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Page S12409]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    DEPLORING THE FAILURE TO FUND A PUGET SOUND CRAB LICENSE BUYBACK

 Mr. GORTON. Mr. President, despite the efforts in conference 
of Senator Gregg and his staff, the Conference report provides no 
funding for a Puget Sound crab license buyback. I deplore this 
omission, which reportedly resulted from the House conferees' 
resistance to providing Federal funding for buyouts in State fisheries. 
Mr. President, even if Federal funding of buyouts in State fisheries 
was not specifically authorized, as it is, in section 312 of the 
Sustainable Fisheries Act of 1996, I firmly believe that the Federal 
Government has a particular responsibility to the nontribal commercial 
Dungeness crabbers in Puget Sound who have lost 50 percent of their 
stock as a result of a Federal court interpretation of a Federal 
treaty.
  This is not an instance in which the hardship the buyout would have 
alleviated resulted from past actions or inactions on the part of 
commercial fishers. Overfishing and poor management are not to blame. 
Rather, this hardship was judicially imposed. In 1995, a Federal 
district court determined that Indian tribes were entitled by Federal 
treaty to take up to 50 percent of the harvestable shellfish. The 
small, 250 vessel non-tribal commercial Puget Sound crab fishery that 
had existed for generations, was suddenly overwhelmed. I understand 
that because of the Federal court order, there are now about 450 
additional tribal crab fishers.
  Mr. President, the majority of the nontribal commercial crabbers in 
Puget Sound are self-employed. The vessels they own may account for a 
large portion of their assets. As the Governor of Washington State, 
Gary Locke, has stated, ``The federal court action leaves them in a 
difficult financial position with vessels, equipment and related debt 
tied to an occupation that is no longer viable at its current licensed 
capacity.'' Again, I deeply regret the House conferees' failure to 
assume Federal responsibility for the consequence of a Federal 
action.

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