programs.

American Commercial Interests Abroad

American firms continue to develop interests in offshore areas of foreign countries. Oil and gas exploration activities in the North Sea, off the African coasts, and in the Persian Gulf, involve American companies operating under arrangements worked out with the riparian governments. An example of a U.S. drilling rig operating in the North Sea is shown in Figure 4. Similarly, American firms are interested in solid-mineral deposits under foreign waters, including mineral deposits near Australia and tin deposits in Southeast Asia. American firms are also heavily involved in fisheries ventures throughout the world, often supporting the development of new local industries. These commercial arrangements represent international cooperation at still another level with benefits accruing to both the American firms and the host countries.

Protecting Order in the World Community

Lasting peace is our goal and international cooperation and economic development should bring us closer to that goal. Meanwhile, a seabased force remains a major factor in reducing the danger of armed conflict-linking us with our allies, deterring potential adversaries, and insuring our capability to contain and conclude limited conflicts. As we strive to promote the orderly evolution of a society of nations linked by peaceful aspirations, we continue to rely on the seas for deploying and supporting our land forces and for insuring the invulnerability of our strategic deterrent. The protection of sea lifelines throughout the world enables maritime activities to thrive in peacetime, and assured lifelines are essential components of our military strategy which provide us with options to meet contingencies at an appropriate level of response. The successful development of a nuclear submarine force equipped with Polaris missiles, and the current development of the Poseidon missile, vividly demonstrate the importance of marine science and technology to our defense.

We have no monopoly, however, on sea-based systems nor on naval technology. The advent of the nuclear-powered submarine and deepdiving capabilities add new elements of sophistication to offensive and defensive concepts, and the technology of undersea warfare has not stabilized. We continue to press the frontiers of technology to refine existing systems and remain in the forefront in developing new concepts.

In refining our tactical capabilities on the oceans, we seek to use the advantages the oceans offer to a sea-based force-flexibility and mobility in deployment and freedom to disperse and concentrate

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the dual goal of making the oceans transparent to our underwater surveillance systems while we operate free of detection. This is the challenge to antisubmarine warfare research. Also, we rely heavily on the invulnerability of operating in the depths of the ocean in formulating our strategic and tactical options.

Much of our expenditures in marine science since World War II has been related directly or indirectly to an understanding of the surface and underwater environment. In the absence of a drastic and unexpected change in the power structure of the world, the demand for a more refined understanding of relevant scientific phenomena in support of naval activities will continue to increase. Development aspects of military oceanography depend upon the generation of basic knowledge; when this fund of knowledge is deficient, as in the case of our understanding of the sea, very active research programs are essential. Naval research and development activities will also continue to make major contributions to many nonmilitary programs which hinge on proper understanding and use of the oceans. The U.S. is continuing its efforts to encourage all nations to become parties to the 1963 treaty prohibiting nuclear testing in the seas, atmosphere, and outer space. We are also continuing to improve our understanding of seismic phenomena under the oceans in earthquake belts both to strengthen our ability to detect and identify seismic phenomena resulting from underground nuclear tests, and to improve tsunami warning and earthquake prediction.

Chapter V

UTILIZING FOOD RESOURCES OF THE SEAS

Next to the pursuit of peace, the greatest challenge to the human
family is the race between food supply and population increase.
That race is now being lost.

LYNDON B. JOHNSON.

The Problem and a Solution

Protein malnutrition afflicts half the world population. Vigorous efforts by all nations are necessary to produce food, adequate in quantity and quality, to keep pace with the expanding world population and the needs of newly developing countries. The causes of world peace and individual welfare demand maximum effort from the more advanced nations.

This problem directly impinges on our Nation's interests, and these facts lie behind a long-standing policy to wage war on hunger.

The imbalance between protein supply and requirements is so serious that every reasonable approach is required to correct it. Cereals supply the bulk of the world's protein, but they do not meet the quantitative need, nor contain all of the essential amino acids. To provide both an adequate quantity and a proper balance of amino acids, additional cheap protein sources are needed to supplement cereals.

This potential of the sea to help meet a significant fraction of worldwide need for protein has been recognized for many years, discussed in every recent study on oceanography, and flagged by the President's Science Advisory Committee as deserving highest priority attention. The recommendation by the Marine Sciences Council represents a next step-a plan for action to match a solution to the food problem. The new initiative to increase utilization of the food resources of the sea was adopted by the Council because of the high promise of helping to meet the worldwide food problem promptly, economically, with available or emerging technologies, and in the framework of existing institutions.

The World Market

The 1965 world catch of seafoods of all kinds was 115 billion pounds, two-thirds of which was used directly for human consumption. Figure 5 shows the trend of the world market, extrapolated to the year

2000. If per capita consumption remains the same as in 1965, more than 215 billion pounds will be required by the turn of the century. The current rate of increase in consumption, however, is about double the rate of world population growth. With better preservation of flavor and more attractive processing, more will be consumed directly as food, in addition to increases for animal feed. Thus it is likely that the per capita consumption of fish products will increase so that by the year 2000, the total could approach 350 billion pounds.

U.S. Market for Fish Products

The U.S. demand for fish products in 1965 amounted to 12 billion pounds. In the past five years it increased at a greater rate than our population, mainly from increased demand for fish meal as animal feed.

Imported fishery products presently supply over half of our requirements. A significant amount of these imports, however, is produced by American-owned companies. Foreign fishery products will continue to take a major share of our domestic market unless the relative cost of products offered by our domestic industry is reduced.

Figure 6 projects American consumption of fishery products to the year 2000 by which time the demand may be double or perhaps triple today's requirements.

Resources of the World's Waters

Against this projection of seafood demand, it is necessary to examine the supply. Data are insufficient on which to base good estimates of the ocean's sustainable yield. Experts are in wide disagreement and

5

1950

1960

2000

FIGURE 6.-U.S. market for fishery products.

Most

their estimates vary from a highly conservative four to more than forty times the present catch. Intensified research on this question is clearly needed as a basis for rational management of the resource. Fish are not uniformly distributed throughout the seas. species seem to be concentrated on continental shelves. Evidence suggests, however, that further exploration of fish populations, particularly for species not now widely used, may modify this present understanding. Figure 7 shows the quantities of fish taken from major fishing areas in 1965.

The U.S. Fishing Industry

In 1965 the United States ranked fifth as a fishing nation, behind Peru, Japan, mainland China, and the Soviet Union. Figure 8 shows the trends from 1938 to 1965 except for mainland China for which no figures have been reported since the rough estimates of 1960. The 6 billion pounds landed annually by American vessels constitutes about one-twentieth of the world catch.

In comparison with the industrially organized Soviet fishing activities, our own fishing industry is more fragmented. As of 1964 there were 128,000 U.S. fishermen operating about 65,000 boats of less than 5 tons, and 12,000 larger vessels. They supplied fish for processing by about 57,000 employees in 4,000 establishments throughout the country.

Ninety-five percent of all our fishing vessels are less than 100 tons. A comparison of U.S. fishing vessels with those of Japan and Spain