ECONOMICS OF THE FISHERIES 469 



it should be kept before the public by every form of propaganda available 

 lest it, too, lose all momentum and be forgotten by a new generation. Talk 

 of the scarcity of scallops, the eel grass mystery, etc., can serve as well as 

 anything else to keep it before the public. 



In this study we are impressed by the apparent lack of relationship 

 between the subjects chosen for biological interest and research on the one 

 hand, and economic progress and welfare of the fisheries on the other. The 

 literature of the fisheries everywhere for the last decade reflects a great 

 interest and some excitement about the destruction of small fish, the usual 

 dangers of depletion, the possibilities of maintaining a theoretical optimum 

 yield of each species, and other subjects which from an economic point of 

 view seem unrealistic. Insofar as the choice of subjects for biological atten- 

 tion can be slanted to economic purposes, we venture a few suggestions: 



Perhaps the most important biological study that could be made in our 

 case would be an appraisal of the total biological potential of the fisheries of 

 North Carolina. The fisheries of the country as a whole continue to produce 

 fish in accordance with the growth of population and with the pulse of the 

 economic cycle. It has continued to do so as far back as we have any record. 

 We do not know how much further expansion is possible, nor does it appear 

 that biological science has afforded us any means of increasing the total 

 production of all the fisheries of the country or even of a region, though a 

 great deal of study has been devoted to particular species. If a study of the 

 North Carolina potential shows that production could be increased 5-, 10-, 

 or 20-fold and the increase would be worth so much in dollars, then an 

 expenditure in substantial amounts of money could be justified in order to 

 accomplish the increase. If, on the other hand, it is found that the potential 

 increase is only slight, say, a factor of i^ or 2 times, then obviously such 

 large expenditures for development would not be justified. It would not be 

 possible, of course, to measure the potential accurately, but some general 

 idea or order of magnitude could be arrived at. 



If it should be decided to conduct a study of this kind, then the entire 

 food chain from diatoms to useful economic species should be studied as a 

 whole and quantitatively so far as possible, including the measure of the 

 percentage of vegetation that enters the animal chain, how much and what 

 kinds of other species each species consumes, and by what other species it is 

 itself consumed, and in what quantities; the relation between the amount 

 of food consumed and the amount of resulting growth; the economic value 

 of the consuming species in relation to the potential economic value of its 

 prey; the effects of fishing for particular species on the production of the 

 system as a whole; and also the effects of regulatory restriction of certain 

 species on total production. 



Increasing the efficiency of finding and catching fish has never been the 



