proach is required to correct it. Accelerated development of food from the sea offers high promise of meeting a part of the world-wide need for protein, and thus assist in:

-reducing threats to world order which are born in areas of starvation

and despair;

-extending the humanitarian traditions that underlie our society; -promoting collaborative efforts between nations in an endeavor of

common concern;

-strengthening economies of developing nations which are striving to become contributors to the world economy.

The Marine Sciences Act states that the U.S. marine science program should contribute to rehabilitation of our commercial fisheries and to accelerated development of marine resources. The legislation also singles out international cooperation for special emphasis.

Thus, the Government is endeavoring to strengthen on-going efforts to assist the domestic fishing industry in improving its position in world fishery production through the application of modern science and technology and by economic measures. Also, the United States has embarked on a new, long-range program to exploit the oceans more fully as a source of food to help feed the undernourished people of the world. To that end, our programs follow the broad strategy of the War on Hunger.

State of the Fishing Industry

Since 1956, the United States has dropped from second to sixth place among the fishing nations of the world. While Peru, Japan, Mainland China, the USSR, and recently Norway have increased their landings sharply, the catch of American fishermen has decreased slightly during the last 10 years. (See Figure III. 1.)

The current demand in the United States for all types of fishery products is equivalent to 65 pounds of fish per capita per year, one of the highest rates in the world. The proportion of this demand met by imports has been increasing and in 1966 amounted to about 65 percent of the aquatic products used by the United States. These imports were valued at more than $720 million. (See Figure III. 2.).

Estimates indicate that the world fishery catch can be greatly increased with presently available techniques. These estimates range from at least a doubling of the catch to a possible increase by a factor of five or more. Of the known species of potential economic value off our coasts, only a few are currently being commercially exploited. Nevertheless, the domestic fishing industry has not expanded, and the rich, latent living resources in nearby

Figure III-1- World Catch of Seafoods by Leading Countries, 1956-1966

international waters are increasingly being harvested by vessels of Asian and European origin.

Numerous interrelated factors bear on this lack of growth of the U.S. fishing industry, and the decline in our international competitive position. Institutional constraints have been cited as a principal cause. Laws, customs, regulations-international and local-may limit the catch of a fisherman or group of fishermen. The restrictions include limitations on the area to be fished, fishing season, type of gear, boats, or the fishing techniques. Regulations may thus be imposed to conserve a sustainable supply of fish stocks; to mediate conflicting user interests, such as between sport and commercial fishing; to insure use of fishing vessels built in the United States; or to insure that individual American fishermen are not at a disadvantage in competing with larger American fishing organizations.

Unfortunately, these regulations sometimes result in serious constraints on the economic efficiency of fishing activities. These constraints contribute to the fragmentation of the industry into small units. A small fishing operation like any small business finds it hard to accumulate sufficient capital to adopt advanced methods and equipment. The fishing industry has not benefited from advantages of large-scale operations and has not developed capabilities to exploit stocks in distant waters except for tuna and shrimp. Some parts of the United States fishing industry increasingly look to investment opportunities abroad where institutional arrangements are considered less burdensome.

With some exceptions, the industry is also fragmented into catching, processing, transporting, and marketing interests rather than providing an integrated fish catching-to-consumption system. Modern marketing techniques are not generally evident. At present the market demand for food fish is largely for species which have been fished for a number of years and which are limited in supply.

Finally, advances in domestic production have been inhibited by inadequate knowledge of fish stock distribution, abundance, and behavior. Consequently, there may be artificial limitations on the species being caught, the areas being fished, and the fishing methods being used. Some resources near the U.S. coast may still be greatly underexploited.

Federal Programs To Assist the Fishing Industry

The Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, cooperating with other Federal agencies and State, academic, and industrial organizations, conducts a variety of programs to foster the economic growth and diversification of U.S. fisheries. The requested appropriation for the FY 1969 fishery development and seafood technology programs of the Bureau totals $42.7 million. These funds provide for a continuation of the following major programs:

1. Resource development and management: These programs account for about 63 percent of the funds requested and are designed to gather data to predict abundance and distribution of fish stocks, provide the understanding needed to maintain the harvest at a level of optimum sustainable yield, and obtain information for international negotiations on high seas fishery resources. Among achievements of this program during 1967 were: -improved prediction of abundance and distribution for skipjack, bluefin, and albacore tuna in the Pacific, and groundfish and sea scallops in the North Atlantic; development of a prediction model for obtaining maximum yield from the Tortugas, Florida, pink shrimp fishery;

-initiation of assessment studies of brown shrimp in the Gulf of Mexico;

-development of lobster and menhaden tagging techniques;

-development of sonar equipment for monitoring salmon migration in Alaskan streams in cooperation with the State;

-continuation of pesticide monitoring along the East Coast and the Gulf of Mexico estuaries;

-completion of two phases of the fishways at Willamette Falls in the Columbia River system;

-successful testing of experimental drifting buoys designed to obtain ocean data at distances up to 400 miles;

development of spacecraft oceanography for analyzing biologically significant conditions of the ocean;

-coordination of large-scale international investigations of tuna in the Eastern Tropical Pacific.

2. Processing and marketing: Research directed to converting raw fish into marketable products accounts for about 20 percent of the FY 1969 budget, including the initiative to expand efforts to develop Fish Protein Concentrate (FPC) described below. During 1967 the following developments were noteworthy:

-assistance in expanding commercial use of Spanish mackerel, soft clams, mullet, and catfish;

-assistance in developing East Coast markets for fish products from the Pacific Northwest by bringing together processors, airline representatives, and buyers;

-approval by the Food and Drug Administration of FPC obtained from hake for human consumption;

-technical assistance to AID in selecting countries to participate in overseas FPC programs;

-development of several new fish products;

-development of irradiation techniques aboard ships to increase the shelf life of fresh fish.

3. Advanced technology: The program for the development of new fishing technology is designed to help industry locate fish concentrations more quickly and catch fish more efficiently through new harvesting methods, fishing tactics, and locating techniques. This program accounts for about 10 percent of the FY 1969 budget request.

Achievements during 1967 included:

-development of methods for estimating the size of surface fish schools by aerial photography;

-successful testing of a prototype electrical trawl for harvesting alewives in the Great Lakes;

development of mechanized seining and conveyer equipment to reduce the time and labor involved in harvesting farm pond fish; -improvement of midwater trawls and precision depth telemetry systems for harvesting Pacific hake;

-introduction of improved pot gear and preferential bait to expand commercial fishing for crab off southeast Alaska.

4. Economic research: Basic economic research and analyses are conducted to aid improvement in economic efficiencies of the commercial fishing industry. This involves all aspects of the fishing industry-management, harvesting, processing, transporting, and marketing. This program accounts for about 4 percent of the requested FY 1969 program. Activities during