DISTRIBUTION AND DESCRIPTION OF FISHERIES 37 



United States largely reflect the greater technological development and 

 the greater need for such preservation to permit continental distribution 

 in a country as large as the United States. 



Product weights of edible imports are available since 1921 and as round 

 weights since 1946. They emphasize the growing dependence upon 

 imports, increasing from 17 per cent of the total supply in 1947 to 45 per 



Table 3.7. Disposition of Landed Catches of Aquatic Organisms by 



Major Product Groups and Imports of Food Fish by Five-year 



Periods, 1921 to 1959 and Comparison of the Disposition of 



United States and World Catches in 1959 



(In round weights except as noted) 



* Minor differences in cross totals due to some categories not available in 1921. 

 t Product Weight. Not included in "Total Edible." 

 t Fresh only. Frozen shown as gross weight for 1959. 



cent in 1959. Imports of industrial fishery products have also risen from 

 23 per cent of the total supplies in 1948 to 33 per cent in 1959. 



Increased imports are largely a result of inadequate or depleted stocks 

 in contiguous waters and the inability of the United States to compete in 

 fisheries off other countries except in the distant eastern Pacific tuna 

 fishery and to a limited extent in the nearby Gulf shrimp fisheries off 

 Mexico and trawl fisheries off Canada, out of Oregon, Washington, and 

 New England. 



Canada, Japan, Mexico, Peru, Norway, and Iceland, which collectively 

 accounted for over 81 per cent of the edible imports in 1959, are more 



