operations, secondary pursuits durinr; off-seasons have been abandoned; 

 the fishennen now contijiuo fishing regardless of tho vagaries of the 

 market. 



A vicious circle is set in motion where a high demand and high 

 prices encourage an infliix of newcomers into the industry which because 

 of the natural limitations of supply leads to over-shrimping. A weaken- 

 ing of the market at such times, rather than rectifying the situation, 

 may only serve to accentuate the tendency to overshrimp. Ultimately, 

 large losses suffered by the fishermen over a period of time lead to the 

 withdrawal of some operciting units from the fishery. This process of 

 attrition in accordance ifith the principle of the survival of the fit- 

 test, or in this instance, of the best-financed, generates instability 

 and benefits neither fisherman nor consumer. The answer to these prob- 

 lems lies in the intelligent management and control of the fishery with 

 the tvon goals of giving the full-time shrimp fisherman an opportunity 

 to remain in the industry and of attempting to expand the fishery 

 tlirough addition of heretofore untapped resources. 



Overfishing of a different sort which may have serious con- 

 sequences of a biological nature, in addition to detrimental effects on 

 the fisherman's welfare, may be connected indirectly with technological 

 developments in the processing of shrimp. The introduction of mechani- 

 cal peeling and deveining devices in canning operations permits the use 

 of smaller shrimp. If, as the result of this irjiovation, a larger pro- 

 portion of small shrimp is taken, the species may sustain some damage. 



Evidence of rising demand is fui-nished in table 1-2, which 

 shovjs imports as a percentage of total annual market supply for selected 

 years fron 1931 to 1955. Imports jumped from 6.5 percent of total 

 supply in 19h^ to 26,1 percent in 19^0; preliminary data for 1957 indicate 

 imports were 36.0 percent of the total supply, 



TABLE I - 2.— SHRIMP IMPORTS AS PERCENT OF TOTAL UNITED STATES 

 SHRIMP SUPPLT, SPECIFIED YEARS 

 (Heads -off weight) 



k6 



