That is something else we need to look into and this Committee will thoroughly investigate this issue. In 1993, in the North Pacific groundfish fishery alone, more than 740 million pounds of fish were discarded . This resulted in the waste of 16 percent of the total catch in that fishery. Much of this waste was of prohibited species. This is an absolute waste and must be stopped .
Permits are a privilege that allow the permit holder to attempt to harvest fish.
There are no guarantees beyond that. No one here should question my leadership in the area of defending personal property rights but in this case there is no claim of property associated with fishing permits or licenses. Many nations give preference to its citizens in allocating fishery resources within the territorial waters of that nation. Under the United Nations Law of the Sea Treaty, which the United States has not ratified but which forms the basis of many international fishery treaties and domestic fishery management laws and is considered customary international law with respect to fishery resources within a nation's waters, a nation may reserve the fishery resources for the exclusive use of citizens of that nation. Congress has passed several pieces of legislation dealing with American ownership in the fishing industry.