FOOD SHORTAGES AND THE SEA — MERRIMAN 383 



unfortunate publicity resulted in the popular misconception that im- 

 portant sea-fishing areas could be similarly treated with comparable 

 results. This is not so ; the magnitude of such an undertaking renders 

 it utterly implausible. 



Another source of encouragement is to be found in the much fuller 

 utilization of marine products in the last two decades. In some 

 fisheries close to half the fishes caught, many of them killed in the 

 process, were discarded as inedible or nonmarketable during World 

 War II. But we are making rapid advances in this field. New 

 species, heretofore unknown to the housewife, are attractively pack- 

 aged. Others, until recently unsought, ai-e taken for the vitamin A 

 in their livers. Still others, not readily marketed, are turned to fish 

 meal for domestic animals. Thus there has developed in the past 

 year a "trash" fishery of no small proportions on the North Atlantic 

 coast; nonmarketable species, previously discarded as useless, have 

 been landed in quantity for the purpose. That is why the Bingham 

 Oceanographic Laboratory has paid particular attention to such 

 species as the small skate in southern New England waters. Not 

 marketable directly for human consumption because of its small size 

 and sharp spines (although its larger counterparts are widely eaten, 

 particularly in Europe), the small skate is now being caught in great 

 numbers for use in the fish-meal industry. We need to know how 

 the supply will stand up under intensive fishing, and how its large- 

 scale removal will affect marketable fishes which compete for the 

 same food in the same area. There is reason to believe that catching 

 such skates will benefit other bottom species, such as flounder, which 

 eat the same small animals. 



At least 60 percent of the fisheries' products throughout the world 

 are inedible, nonabsorbable, or otherwise unfit for human consumption, 

 but we are learning how to utilize what heretofore has been almost 

 pure waste. These scrap products are useful. Herring scales have 

 recently been worth more to the commercial fisherman than the her- 

 ring itself — for use in certain "gun-metal" and other paints so com- 

 mon on automobiles. Other byproducts in filleting are used for 

 fish meal or for oil. Some whole fishes are ground up for cat and 

 dog food. No longer do we discard with abandon, and the far more 

 efficient utilization of these resources augurs well for the future. 



In the final analysis, however, we must maintain the most cautious 

 optimism about the resources of the sea as a means of alleviating 

 world food shortages. Particular areas and populations can increase 

 their fish production and relieve local protein deficiencies. Our total 

 landings can and will go far above the present catch by using new 

 gear and by exploiting oceanic resources to the full, and we shall learn 

 how to make the most complete use of what we take. But it is un- 

 realistic to think that the ocean is likely to supply a large proportion 



