is an unused potential of fish products in the world ocean and 

 that it is probable we can increase the fish catch near the shores 

 of our respective countries, using existing methods and avail- 

 able gear, by a factor of from two to four times the amount of 

 fish now being produced by our industries. It has been 

 pointed out that this potential increase in catch is not a cer- 

 tainty but only a possibility — a possibility which can only be 

 achieved with certain changes occurring among the habits of 

 our people, policies of our Government, and action by our 

 industry. 



It was pointed out by Dr. Larkin that our North American 

 fishery potential will largely depend upon what the consumers 

 decide. He believes there to be a substantial demand for sea- 

 foods but that the full potential can be achieved onlv if the 

 consumer wants it. Dr. Larkin further points out that the 

 concepts of fisheries management are rapidly changing — from 

 those which in the past were considered the maximum sus- 

 tainable yield alone to a more sophisticated approach to con- 

 servation and management, which considers the maximized 

 economic yield or the greatest value of production from the least 

 effort within prevailing circumstances. 



I agree with Dr. Larkin that there is a great potential in the 

 world ocean and that the North American Continent is in a 

 favorable position with regard to the fisheries productivity. 

 It seems rather obvious that our quite specific and unchanging 

 tastes in fisheries products have limited the catch to a very few 

 of the available species. At some time in the future, when we 

 have learned to efficiently catch and process our latent resources 

 in a usable yet new form, prepare them for customers who 

 have been conditioned to demand new products, products from 

 herring, codlike and flounder species now lying fallow on and 

 over the edge of the Continental Shelf, then and only then is 

 it likely that our fishermen will be encouraged to turn their 

 efforts to these species. 



There can be no question about the demand. I believe that 

 the greatest fisheries market in the world exists within our three 

 countries. In fact, there is little question but what the United 

 States by itself is the world's most important fisheries market, 

 dollar-wise at least. 



We in the United 'States are importing 62 percent of the 

 fisheries products consumed in our country. If we can 

 learn how to efficiently harvest and process the underutilized 

 species adjacent to our coast, we can increase the consumption 

 of our domestically produced fish. I believe this can be done 

 without reducing the imports; it can be done by increasing the 

 consumption of fish within the United States. To date we 

 have been unsuccessful in increasing the per capita consumption 

 of fish and some of our speakers have raised questions about 

 this lack of success and others have pontificated about how we 

 might overcome our difficulties. 



Dr. Kask raises some of these important questions. He asks, 

 "Why, when world fish production has more than doubled in 

 1950, have the North American fish producers barely held their 

 own in spite of the fact that effective demand for fish products 

 has continued to increase?" Secondly, he has asked, "Why 

 hasn't the per capita consumption of fish improved along with 

 the consumption of bread, meat, poultry, eggs, and cheese?" 



Thirdly, "Is one of our problems the overadministration of our 

 resources?"' — that is, the basic administration of the States are 

 overlaid with the administration of the Federal Government 

 and international commissions. He summarizes this question 

 by asking, "Are we doing the right things with the increasing 

 funds we are spending?" And, fourthly, "Can we justify the 

 increasing costs of national research programs in the face of 

 the lagging developments of North American fisheries?" 

 These are important questions. They touch upon the heart of 

 the problem. He might also have asked whether our present 

 systems of dealing with developing international fisheries prob- 

 lems are entirely adequate, and he might have gone further 

 and asked, "Are our concepts of, and mechanisms for, the con- 

 servation and utilization of the living resources of the sea ade- 

 quate for the future?" 



Dr. Chapman, in discussing these questions, does so some- 

 what indirecdy. Perhaps he purposely avoids the direct ques- 

 tions asked by Dr. Kask. He addresses himself to the general 

 question of "Politics and the Marine Fisheries." He discusses 

 in some depth the problems involved in the full use of the living 

 resources of the sea. Just as Dr. Kask's primary question in- 

 volved the broad question as to why the United States and 

 Canada, especially, have not increased fish production despite 

 the effective and increasing demand for fisheries products in 

 their countries, so Dr. Chapman has approached this broad 

 question from the standpoint of what he calls "institutional 

 problems," barriers our society has raided to the fuller use of 

 fishery resources off our coast. His paper points out, among 

 other things, that the manifestation of our problem is the in- 

 ability of fisheries products to compete with other products, 

 such as the red meats, poultry, etc., mentioned by Dr. Kask, for 

 the consumer's dollar. A number of these institutional prob- 

 lems are proposed as major barriers to the increased domestic 

 catch. State laws which discourage the development of new 

 fisheries and inhibit the efficient growth of existing fisheries are 

 listed as being a major cause. The country-wide question of 

 sportsmen versus commercial fishermen, and the inefficient 

 versus efficient fishermen, both tend to inhibit the opportunities 

 of American fishermen. It was pointed out that many of 

 these conflicts are forms of gear conflict, wherein a less effi- 

 cient user of the resource wants to prevent a more efficient user 

 from gobbling up the allowable catch, whatever that may be. 

 While Dr. Chapman's contention seems to be that the recrea- 

 tional fisherman must always win out, I am not so certain of this 

 conclusion. I would wonder whether the public interest in 

 some areas does not lean towards making the healthful food 

 products of the sea available to all citizens rather than to a 

 selected few. Obviously, these resources can best be made 

 available to all citizens through the medium of efficient, 

 modern, commercial fishermen. Nevertheless, Dr. Chapman's 

 point that these are problems is well taken. 



It is also true that the critical conflicts for the use of species 

 of fish are few, and if reason rather than emotion was applied 

 to the problems, solutions could easily be found. 



Dr. Chapman points out that State fisheries research agencies 

 and the academic institutions, as well as the Federal organiza- 

 tion of ocean research, all leave much to be desired in bringing 



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