Awhile back there was a post by a deckhand from the Alaska trawler fleet. It made some reference to Senator Gortons involvement and the huge amount of wastage. I sent it to Senator Gorton and this is his reply. Dear Bruce,

Thank you for contacting me about wastage by factory trawlers. I
appreciate hearing from you.

As you may know, the trawl fishery in the Exclusive Economic Zone is
managed by the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council (NPFMC). By
most accounts, the North Pacific fishery is among the best managed in
the world. You may consider taking your concerns to the Council.

In addition, the statement in your e-mail that I own many boats in
Alaska is wrong. My family has not owned the Gorton brand for several
generations. While my family has some involvement in fish processing
activities on the East Coast, we are no longer engaged in harvesting and
have not been for many years.

Again, thank you for writing. Please do not hesitate to do so again in
the future.

Sincerely,


SLADE GORTON
United States Senator

that is not true. ask him about the fleet american seafoods has in the south east alaska doing the salmon. you can call n.m.f.s and ask them about the by catch policy. When i was on the F/T elizeth ann and the F/T US Enterprise we were told to
dump all by catch including salmon, halibut, black cod and ling cod. although our by catch was small in comaprison to the regulated catch it still was tons of fish wasted.
We even offered to pack the fish for north west harvest and was allowed to but when we got to seattle the people from north west harvest did not want it, we ended up throwing away over 20 tons of packed salmon and halibut. we could not keep it, if we tried we would have lost our licese to fish, or a large penalty. so it all went into the dumpster at piere 91.
Ask the salmon fisherman at ballard terminal and they will tell you who is being wasteful
with all the fish in alaska, they will say trawlers, especially american seafoods.
I dont have a copy at hand but will get one soon and scan it in, but the policy in the employees manual is that we do not take any video taping on the boats due to sensitive issues is what it says. it really is saying wow we dont want any one else to see what were doing. I do have a video taken in 1992 with all the fish we were dumping, and i would be glad to show it to slade gorton.
Ask all the natives from dutch harbor to dillingham down to lower south east alaska and ask them about the deal they got from our state reps including S Gorton.
I challenge him any day, to argue with me about waste among factory trawlers.
I know who is wasting and who isnt. any fisherman on a Factory trawler can tell you. as long as they can keep there annomity.
we are afaraid to lose our jobs.
But do what the office says or else pack your bags.
and its hard when you have a house payments and other bills.
N.M.F.S.(national marine fisheries service) does to a good job overlooking whats going on but not on all boats and in all cases. they have there problems too. they send up greenhorns that get sea sick and never come out of there rooms to check our bags for by catch, i know our boat had one of these just this last "A" season.
Im not here to say im right and hes wrong but i am telling the facts, im on these ships.
Mr Gorton isnt. Ask him about the russians too. how dome they fish with out quotas and the ones that do dont keep there contract.
I would like to see gorton on deck on my ship and see the waste and then tell me that n.m.f.s. is doing a good job.

also the fisheries in the east cost is worse off then here in the north pacific, gortons family was not by any means fishing politically correct.
they have done there share of stripping and dumping too.
why is it majority of our bosuns and mates and captains on our boat who are not norwegins from the east cost, because there is not the abundance and they come her to suppport there family. no fishing operations in the east or west coast can say they operate perfectly. every one of these companies, tyson,american seafoods, alaska ocean, golden alaska,trident,all alaska,etc... have poched in there time and plenty of it.
why arte the japs taking over our watersd in alaska, because they killed all there fish in there ocean, but we want a good relations here in seattle with them because of trade so kill some fish ok, make sushi, hell buy a whale. ass holes.

also the fisheries in the east cost is worse off then here in the north pacific, gortons family was not by any means fishing politically correct.
they have done there share of stripping and dumping too.
why is it majority of our bosuns and mates and captains on our boat who are not norwegins from the east cost, because there is not the abundance and they come her to suppport there family. no fishing operations in the east or west coast can say they operate perfectly. every one of these companies, tyson,american seafoods, alaska ocean, golden alaska,trident,all alaska,etc... have poched in there time and plenty of it.
why arte the japs taking over our watersd in alaska, because they killed all there fish in there ocean, but we want a good relations here in seattle with them because of trade so kill some fish ok, make sushi, hell buy a whale. ass holes.
owning a processing plant is just like running a trawler, where do you think the fish come from ? the shore based plnts get away with even more murder then we do.
slade should think about who spports his familys processing plants.

Thanks for the info,Divers! We need all the information we can get. If you can drop the senator an email I would be interested in his reply.

maybe some one can help me or tell me how i can transfer my vhs to real video or quick time format and i can display it on the web.
And i would be more then happy to do that(send a letter) to our state reps.

Divers ... if you want to send me a copy of the tape ... I'll convert it for you ... just email me if you'd like me to do it.

I Will do that here, I have to go out for one more season in july then its over, i will get a land base job as a dive instructor.
I will get more footage to.
Especially now in the summer we get a lot more by catch. they can fire me after this season, if they find out about the tapes. i dont care.
My friend was up there this winter and he said he used you (bob) as a guide, he spoke highly of you.
I have a vhs tape and Also a digital tape with some footage but will have more by sept.
i can copy the vhs tape a send a copy but i dont know about the digital tape.

(I went back and looked at some past posts I missed because I was offline for about 3 months this summer. With 4 days to go, I was thinking the newer BBers might find this one interesting.)