INTRODUCTION 



The sea for thousands of years has been the least explored part of the earth. 

 Now, with increased interest in the sea and the development of new and 

 growing technology for its study and utilization, great esthetic and material 

 rewards have been made a\'ailable to mankind. The sea has become for many 

 men a new source of esthetic enrichment because of its primiti\'eness. It is also 

 a vast reservoir of food and minerals, and this important part of the earth's 

 resources is becoming more so because of the ever-growing problem of over- 

 population—a problem which se\'eral atomic scientists have called more serious 

 than the threat of the atomic bomb. If the sea is to continue to plav its important 

 role in solving this problem, world-wide and local conservation programs must 

 be enacted. 



Man's relationship with the sea is the same today as that of the early 

 American pioneers with the undiscoveired wilderness. They believed that the 

 land had unlimited productivity. But the rapid consumption of land resources 

 without any thought of conserving the supply has resulted in great decimation 

 of one-time plentiful forests and wildlife. Even James Audubon did not believe 

 that the passenger pigeon of our plains, formerlv one of the world's most 

 numerous birds, could ever become extinct. Flocks of millions once filled the 

 skies, yet today not one remains. Similar stories of decimation have been repeated 

 in the cases of the American bison, pronghorn antelope, bighorn sheep, beaver, 

 many species of ducks, and valuable timber trees such as southern long-leaf pine, 

 sugar pine and several hardwoods. These examples are onlv a small fragment of 

 a long list of man's abuse of the land. 



We must avoid the careless and tragic exploitation of the sea which we have 

 not avoided in the case of the land. Behind this exploitation lies one of the 

 commonest beliefs of modern man— that the sea is inexhaustible. It is absolutelv 

 vital to realize that the sea, like the land, has its limits and that the exploitation 

 of the sea beyond its ability to replenish itself can onlv result in the situation 

 that exists on much of the land. Already there are signs of the exhaustibilitv 

 of the sea. Whales, thought to be innumerable at one time, were so scarce 

 before World War II that manv whaling fleets ceased operations. Since the war, 

 international control has resulted in a slow increase in their numbers. Sea otters, 

 fur seals, sea turtles, striped bass, salmon, shad, and others all were, or still are, 

 exceedingly important economically and have all suffered severely from exploi- 

 tation. Commercial catches of manv important species of schooling fishes are 



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