T. Gorton: “I now want to emphasize my support of the substitute version of the American Fisheries Act that has been included in…”

“I now want to emphasize my support of the substitute version of the American Fisheries Act that has been included in this mammoth bill. It has been an unexpected privilege and a pleasure to work with, as opposed to against, the Senior Senator from Alaska and his staff on legislation affecting the allocation and management of pollock in the North Pacific. Together, we have crafted a substitute measure designed to achieve the goals of his original legislation, which aimed to Americanize and decapitalize the North Pacific pollock fishery. Not only is this substitute, in my view, fundamentally more fair than the original S. 1221, it is considerably better in that it allows for new methods of managing the largest fishery in the United States, methods that promise to end the race for fish and to ensure that the decapitalization is permanent. Americanization, decapitalization, and rationalization. These were the three things most participants in the pollock fishery said that they wanted from legislation when I convened an industry meeting in Seattle during the August recess.”