306 MARINE FISHERIES OF NORTH CAROLINA 



responsive to the forces 0} supply and demand, inflation and deflation, as 

 will be seen in the Section on quantitative economics. 



b. Free Enterprise and Unlimited Competition. Most fishing operations 

 requiring little of capital, skill, or experience are to a large extent the enter- 

 prise of individuals or very small groups of people who are free to go fishing. 

 The fisheries therefore attract as many fishermen as can economically sur- 

 vive, and competition is at the maximum. A profit to fishermen may be 

 realized from an occasional coincidence of a number of favorable circum- 

 stances that give the fishermen a greater return than wages. Such a coinci- 

 dence occurred in the late World War II, when the scarcity of meat caused 

 a sudden demand for fish which could not be met with the number of fishing 

 boats available, the building of additional boats was restricted, and fisher- 

 men were drafted into the armed services. Prices rose sharply before OPA 

 could apply controls and fishermen profited handsomely, i.e., their income 

 was temporarily far in excess of prevailing wages of skilled labor. This 

 condition, though without price control, continues to some extent in the 

 postwar period because of the demand for all foods for export. In normal 

 times, when competitive forces are free and in equilibrium, the rewards to 

 the fishermen (the catch or a share in it) have some of the characteristics 

 of wages, but, unlike wages they are not measured alone by the time or 

 effort expended but in large part by chance both in catching and in the state 

 of the market. 



c. Restrictive Legislation. Until recent years public interest in the United 

 States has not concerned itself greatly in dictating the use of farm, forest, 

 or mineral lands. It has rather promoted and assisted at public expense the 

 exploitation of them as basic sources of wealth, and while the more recent 

 public policies in agriculture are somewhat concerned with soil conservation, 

 their general design is to make the land and farm labor more productive of 

 wealth and to promote the economic welfare of farmers. The fisheries, how- 

 ever, being public, are in the circumstances above described the subject of 

 rivalries, fears, and jealousies which give rise to the belief, deeply and 

 historically implanted in the public mind and not minimized by political 

 interest and the demands of sportsmen, that the fisheries are to be regarded 

 less as a source of wealth to be promoted than a limited natural resource in 

 danger of being exhausted or "depleted." The fisheries are therefore the 

 subject of all manner of restrictive legislation, much of which is illogical 

 and contradictory, and which enforces inefficiency and generally interferes 

 with the free play of economic forces to the disadvantage of the commercial 

 fisheries in competition with agriculture. 



Fisheries literature from the earliest times is replete with recorded beliefs 

 of which hundreds could be quoted that (i) the yield of the fisheries is 

 declining; (2) the declines are caused by excessive fishing or by destructive 



