Since 1958, the amount of fish for reduction to meal and oil 

 has increased by 180 percent. This brings us to the subject 

 of fishmeal. 



In 1958, 13 percent of the total world catch was used for 

 reduction. By 1962, this figure had risen to 26j/i percent, 

 even though the world catch itself had greatly increased. The 

 trend continued upward through 1963. If we exclude the 

 world inland catch, the proportion of sea fish used for reduc- 

 tion is nearly 30 percent. 



It would seem that at least one of every four tons of fish 

 caught is not used directly to feed human beings, but is ground 

 into meal to feed pigs and chickens, eventually to appear on the 

 tables of nations which can afford this expensive food. This 

 should not be taken as an indictment of the use of fish as a 

 source of meal for animal feeding. Rather, when we look at 

 present and future problems of hunger and malnutrition in the 

 world, the existence of vast stocks of fish now used for meal 

 for feeding animals challenges us to find ways in which these 

 proteins can be brought to the people in developing nations who 

 need them so desperately. FAO is deeply involved in the 

 problems of promoting human consumption of fish protein 

 concentrates. 



I have been trying to make several points about world 

 fisheries today. The usual, and quite valid, summation is 

 expansion — bigger catches, bigger boats, more of everything, 

 fisheries being swept along in a technological revolution. It is 

 said that world fishing has advanced more in the past 20 years 

 than in the previous two thousand years. But there are places 

 and people — overwhelming majorities of fishing nations and 

 fishermen which have been left far behind. One result is that 

 95 percent of the world catch of fish is taken by one-fifth of the 

 countries. Another result is a tremendous technological dis- 

 parity shown by an Icelander's 100-ton annual catch and a 

 tropical fisherman's one ton. And in the midst of this, special 

 problems such as the fishmeal explosion, which make the world 

 catch look much better than it really is in terms of this tre- 

 mendous dilemma that the world is in over human feeding. 

 These problems are foremost in FAO's role in world fisheries. 



I have been restraining myself from plunging into a subject 

 which raises its head at almost every point. It is a new ele- 

 ment, new certainly in degree. I consider it the most impor- 

 tant aspect of modern world fishing. It is internationalism, 

 the increasingly international character of world fisheries. 



At FAO we have some rather good statistics on interna- 

 tional trade. If we convert the fishery products entering inter- 

 national trade to their original live weight equivalent we find 

 that one-third of the total world catch was entering interna- 

 tional trade seven years ago. Since 1962 this figure has risen 

 to 40 percent. For every five tons of fish caught, two are ex- 

 ported. The volume of fish and fishery products traded inter- 

 nationally is now more or less the same as the amount of meat. 



Of course, the basic underlying factor, the way in which 

 fisheries differs from agriculture, is that the high seas and their 

 fish stocks are the common property of mankind. This fact, 

 coupled with rapid advances in the range, speed and fishing 

 power of the world's fishing fleets, and with improved tech- 



nology of preservation has brought nearly every portion of the 

 world ocean under exploitation. The southern seas, almost 

 untapped a few years ago, are now being worked by vessels from 

 many countries. Every ocean seems to become smaller. Each 

 new factory trawler is more efficient than the last. 



There are many international and intergovernmental bodies 

 dealing with fisheries. Most are concerned with the fisheries 

 of particular regions, often with particular species or groups 

 of species. Some deal with research only, some with regula- 

 tion of fishing effort, some with jurisdiction. In a typical year 

 our Fisheries Division will have active liaison with two or three 

 dozen international bodies dealing with fisheries in one way or 

 another. 



As pressure on aquatic food resources grows so does the role 

 of FAO in world fisheries. There is at present a good deal 

 of discussion and debate going on about our place in this mod- 

 ern, highly internationalized fisheries situation which I have 

 been describing. Perhaps we could backtrack a little to in- 

 quire what FAO is and does. 



FAO grew out of war. The idea was discussed in 1 943 not 

 far from here, at Hot Springs, Virginia. It was probably one 

 of the most noble and generous ideas ever conceived by man. 

 Basically it boiled down to this: most people are hungry and 

 undernourished; try to feed them and raise their nutritional 

 level; show them how they can help themselves. 



Sickened by war, people wanted no more of it. It was 

 clear that peace is difficult to achieve where there is great in- 

 equality in eating standards, living standards, health standards 

 and income levels. 



The result was that, shortly after the United Nations itself 

 was founded in 1945, its first specialized agency was created — 

 the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. 

 The founding meeting was held north of here in Quebec City, 

 Canada, and FAO's first headquarters were right here in 

 Washington. 



One hundred and twelve nations now belong to the 

 Organization. 



The FAO Fisheries Division now comprises 53 professional 

 officers, including 10 fishery officers at seven regional offices 

 around the world. We divide our work into two broad cate- 

 gories. The first category, work under the so-called Regular 

 Program, has always been with us. This is mainly work of 

 coordination and leadership in collecting and disseminating 

 technical information on fisheries. The expression of this 

 work is seen in our convening of scientific, technological and 

 economic conferences, seminars, study tours and working 

 groups. Thee gatherings pool the world's knowledge on cer- 

 tain specific fisheries subjects. Another expression of Regular 

 Program work is our publications and documents program in 

 which fisheries information is produced and distributed in 

 FAO's three working languages, English, French and Spanish. 



An important part of our Regular Program work consists of 

 efforts to promote conservation and wise use of fisheries re- 

 sources. At the moment we are contributing our efforts to 

 those of many others on a most interesting and difficult case 

 in point — the conservation of whale stocks, particularly in the 

 Antarctic. 



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