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Mr. ANDERSON. Are there any questions of Mr. Gann?

Mr. LEGGETT. The total confiscations to your company are how many seizures?

Mr. GANN. Five seizures.

Mr. LEGGETT. And total amount of money expended ?

Mr. GANN. A total of about $150,000.

Mr. LEGGETT. And how should that be recovered?

Mr. GANN. We haven't recovered any.

Mr. LEGGETT. How long have your claims been ?

Mr. GANN. The last recovery we made was the San Juan and the Mariner and the Cape Ann. We received the money in 1970 and those incidents-it took us about a year to recover our money.

Mr. LEGGETT. Is the State Department cooperating to give you compensation or what are they doing?

Mr. GANN. I think I said in my statement that I said that they cooperate financially, but that isn't the cooperation we need to solve the problem.

Mr. LEGGETT. That is all the questions, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. ANDERSON. Mr. Van Deerlin, do you have any questions ?

Mr. VAN DEERLIN. No, thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think this testimony just reinforces the absolutely impossible situation that boat owners are in, in regard to this effort to carry on a legitimate business on the high seas, from a man who has just had repeated run-in's.

I think it was fully 5 years ago, wasn't it, that you were back in Washington ?

Mr. GANN. Yes; that is when we covered this Mayflower incident which Peru had denied until we showed them these pictures and there was no way they could say our people was saying the untruth to what happened.

Mr. VAN DEERLIN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. ANDERSON. Mr. Gann, you heard the suggestion this morning by Mr. Steve Edney of withholding an amount equal to the total ransoms paid by the boatowners, and to have that put into a fund that would be paid automatically to the boatowners to cover the cost of wages, and other costs incurred. What would be your view on this type of legislation? I realize this doesn't get to the heart of the problem, but it does reach one of the problems of compensation.

Mr. GANN. We would be compensated sooner which would be financial assistance, and I do agree with him on that point. I agree with the part where if something isn't done we are not going to be fishing in another 5 or 10 years as they develop, they are going to become more possessive of the area that they claim is theirs. As they develop we are not going to be able to fish there any more.

Mr. ANDERSON. I assume your views then on the idea of purchasing licenses for fishing 200 miles from the shoreline would be very similar to those expressed by Mr. Felando this morning?

Mr. GANN. Yes.

Mr. ANDERSON. And you are opposed to the purchase of licenses on an economic basis as well as on the basis that it would automatically recognize to some extent-the 200-mile claim?

Mr. GANN. That is correct.

Mr. ANDERSON. Mr. Dingell, we are just about to complete here, I thought maybe you wanted to ask some questions?

Mr. DINGELL. No, no questions.

Mr. ANDERSON. Thank you very much, Mr. Gann.

Mr. GANN. I would like to thank the committee for being the first time we have had one here near where the action is because I have been back to Washington a couple times and we appreciate your time in coming out here to California.

Mr. DINGELL. You can thank these very able men we have up here at the head table who made this possible, Mr. Anderson, Mr. Van Deerlin, Mr. Mailliard, Mr. Leggett who are responsible for my presence and the presence of the committee.

The Chair notes that the information submitted by the witness will without objection be inserted in the record at the appropriate point, and the staff is so directed.

Mr. DINGELL. Our next witness is Mr. Robert B. Young, executive director, American Tuna Sales Association, San Diego.

Mr. Young, we are happy to have you with us today and if you will identify yourself fully by name and address for purposes of the record, we will be happy to recognize you.

STATEMENT OF ROBERT B. YOUNG, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, AMERICAN TUNA SALES ASSOCIATION, SAN DIEGO, CALIF.

Mr. YOUNG. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you. My name is Robert B. Young. My home address is 3320 Via Lido in Newport Beach, Calif. My office address is 600 East Harbor Street, San Diego.

The American Tuna Sales Association who I represent, is a California nonprofit corporation, organized in 1967 by both boatowners and fishermen to develop a sound progressive marketing plan for the U.S. tuna fleet. We are essentially nonpolitical.

Our basic role is operating the ATSA presailing auction which prices the U.S. domestic frozen product and the export sales of U.S. caught tuna to foreign buyers.

Our methods and policies have proven successful. Before we began operations in late 1967, fishermen were receiving $245 to $260 per ton for yellowfin, and as little as $100 per ton for skipjack. Since then we have had an orderly and steady improvement in returns to the fishermen; today's domestic market being $412 for yellowfin and $362 for skipjack with additional premiums available on sales abroad. Every other segment of the domestic industry has also improved their earnings since ATSA's inception including all canners. All this has been accomplished with little or no increase in prices to the U.S.

consumer.

Our country has an adverse balance of trade on frozen fishery products of approximately three-fourth of a billion dollars per year and constantly soaring. Roughly 100 million of this is in import of frozen tuna. One wonders how and why the U.S. taxpayer continues to put up with such drains on our economy. We are paying for protection abroad by huge loans and grants for foreign development of fisheries to foreign nations and then subsidizing their production into the States duty free. This piles on doubly the load the U.S. taxpayer is carrying. During the last several years, we have begun to build up an export market from the U.S. seiners of a few million dollars annually. This

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