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1 PHILIP H. PARKER 



2 deep-seated conviction that man, so completely dependent 



3 upon water as he is, must learn to place his purely economic 



4 interests in this vital resource in a position of secon- 



5 dary importance behind the primary concern for the pro- 



6 tection and preservation of the resource itself. This 



7 latter conviction remains paramount in our thinking today, 

 g but our view of our economic interest in water has vastly 

 9 been altered in the past two weeks. 



10 At the twenty-first annual convention of 



11 our Association last month we were presented a thoughtful, 



12 well-researched and documented paper by a widely known 



13 and highly respected fisheries biologist which disclosed 



14 that the Puget Sound was potentially capable of producing 



15 annually an amount of oysters equal to the total produc- 



16 tion of all fisheries products now produced in the entire 



17 United States. This revelation staggers the imagination. 



18 At the same time, it drastically alters our industry's 



19 self image. The implied responsibility to fully utilize 



20 this vast food-producing potential in a world that is 



21 crying for Increased production of scarce protein looms 



22 immediately. The possibility of transforming an industry 



23 which now contributes about 10 million dollars annually 



24 ! to the economy of W.js'iington to one adding something 



25 around 10 billion dollars a year is exciting, is 



