Because the tuna industry started in southern California, most 

 of the fishermen make their homes in that area and might not wish 

 to locate elsewhere. Since tuna fishing is a highly specialized 

 occupation^ availability of experienced tuna fishermen is an 

 important requisite to the establishment of a tuna industry* 



One disadvantage to southern California as the center of the 

 tuna indiistry is the fact that the real big markets for the 

 product are in the eastern section and the urban areas of the 

 central section of the country. This increases the cost of 

 transportation to some extent over that of eastern production. 

 However, transportation costs are a minor part of total costs 

 involved in the price the consumer pays for canned tuna and 

 tunalike products. Another disadvantage has been the movement of 

 the center of fish production to the south. 



The tuna industry has considered the possibilities of moving 

 its canneries to other locations, particularly in the Gulf and 

 Caribbean areas. Puerto Rico has a potential advantage not shared 

 by other areas in that under a recent agreement no Federal income 

 tax would have to be paid for tuna produced there within the next 

 few years. Apparently, insofar as the California tuna packers 

 are concerned, the disadvantages more than outweigh the advantages 

 in all Gulf and Caribbean potential locations except in Puerto Rico. 

 In that Territory the tax advantage appears to have made the 

 possibility of tuna operations attractive enough so that, in spite 

 of the various other drawbacks, several California tuna concerns 

 are giving very careful consideration to the possibility of 

 operating in Puerto Rico. Some factors which would influence such 

 a decision are hard to evaluate. For example, labor costs are 

 much lower on an hourly basis in Puerto Rico than in California 

 but productivity may be lower. Distances to be traveled by tuna 

 clippers from the highly productive fishing grounds off Peru and 

 Ecuador are less to Puerto Rico than to southern California, but, 

 the industry points out, in traversing the distance from southern 

 California to South American waters the fishing vessel is con- 

 tinually passing through waters containing tuna and in some 

 voyages may get a full cargo without ever traversing the maximum 

 distance to equatorial waters. Since fishing vessels from Puerto 

 Rico would have to cruise as far as the Panama Canal through 

 presently non-productive tuna waters, they would have to make close 

 to the maximum voyage. These and other perplexing problems make 

 the final decision a difficult one. 



347 



