FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                 AT
TUESDAY, MAY 20, 1997                                     (202) 616-2771
                                                      TDD (202) 514-1888

      JUSTICE DEPARTMENT APPROVES FISH CATCHERS/PROCESSORS PROPOSAL
        TO ALLOCATE AMONGST THEMSELVES THE AMOUNT OF GOVERNMENT-
               REGULATED PACIFIC WHITING THEY CAN HARVEST

     WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Department of Justice today approved a
proposal by a group of fish catchers and processors that will allow them to
allocate amongst themselves the fixed quota of Pacific Whiting allocated to
them as a group by the U.S. government.

     The Department said that the group's proposal is not likely to have an
anticompetitive effect in the regulated output setting.  

     The group, known as The Whiting Conservation Cooperative, will be
created by the four members licensed to operate as catchers and processors
of Pacific Whiting--Alaska Ocean Seafood, American Seafoods, Glacier Fish
Co., and Tyson Seafood Group.  

     The Department of Commerce, for environmental and economic reasons,
limits the amount of Pacific Whiting that may be harvested from U.S. waters
in a given year.  In addition to determining the maximum amount of Pacific
Whiting that may be harvested from U.S. waters, Commerce's regulatory
program divides the total quota between three groups of processors. 
 
     For 1997 through 2001, Commerce's Pacific Whiting Fishery Plan
allocates harvesting as follows:

     *  Forty-two percent to on-shore processing plants; 
     *  Twenty-four percent to "mothership" processors--ships             
that have on-board processing capabilities but do not catch the fish; and 
     *  Thirty-four percent to vessels that catch and process             
their own fish on-board--catcher/processors or C/Ps.
  
     Entry into the Whiting fishery is limited.  Licenses were issued to
qualifying vessels at a prior qualifying date and are transferable.


     Under the current regulatory plan, the entire sub-allocation of each
group of processors may be harvested by each licensed participant.  This is
referred to as an "olympic" system because it provides each individual
processor with the incentive to harvest as much as possible of its sector's
total allotment as fast as it can.  Any amount not harvested by one member
of the group will be lost to other members of the group.

     The group's proposal allows the companies to enter a harvesting
agreement under which the total catcher/processor allotment provided for in
the regulatory plan would be divided among the four members in specified
proportions.  Alaska Ocean Seafood, American Seafoods, Glacier Fish Co.,
and Tyson Seafood Group will divide amongst themselves the 34 percent that
is allotted to the catcher/processor group.  The agreement would limit only
the harvesting activities of its members.  It will expressly disclaim any
intent to constrain the production or marketing practices of the member
companies.  No joint discussions of purchasing, processing, marketing or
sales will be engaged in other than as appropriate as part of Commerce's
regulatory process or as permitted by that Department's certificated export
committee to which three of the members belong.

     Pacific Whiting generally is not sold as an end product directly to
consumers.  Rather, it is primarily used to produce surimi--a protein paste
made by repeatedly macerating and washing the flesh of the fish to remove
all water soluble fats and other impurities and blending it with certain
compounds.  Surimi is used as a component in various consumer products in
Japan and artificial crab meat in the U.S.  Other types of fish are
substitutable for Pacific Whiting in the preparation of surimi.  Surimi
made from Pacific Whiting accounts for approximately four percent of world-
wide surimi production.

     Joel I. Klein, Acting Assistant Attorney General in charge of the
Department's Antitrust Division, noted that the Department of Justice had
stated in a prior filing in a Department of Commerce fishing rights
regulatory proceeding that utilization of an olympic race system to gather
a fixed quota of fish "is both inefficient and wasteful because it is
likely to generate inefficient over-investment in fishing and processing
capacity."     Klein stated that, "It does not appear that the proposed
elimination of the olympic system race to gather the fixed quota of Pacific
Whiting would have any incremental anticompetitive effect in the regulated
output setting."

     Klein also said that to the extent that the proposed agreement allows
for more efficient processing that increases the output of the processed
Pacific Whiting or reduces the inadvertent catching of other fish species
whose preservation is also a matter of regulatory concern, it could have a
procompetitive effect.

     The Department's position was stated in a business review letter from
Klein to counsel for the Whiting Conservation Cooperative.

     Under the Department's Business Review Procedure, an organization may
submit a proposed action to the Antitrust Division and receive a statement
as to whether the Division will challenge the action under the antitrust
laws.

     A file containing the business review request and the Department's
response may be examined in the Legal Procedure Unit of the Antitrust
Division, Suite 215, Liberty Place, 325 7th Street, N.W., Department of
Justice, Washington, D.C.  20004.  After a 30-day period, the documents
supporting the business review will be added to the file.
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