Exploration of possible new tuna grounds has been underway 

 by the Fish and Vlildlife Service for the past several years in the 

 Pacific, the Gulf of Mexico p and off the Atlantic seaboard. Re- 

 sults are promising ibr the establishment of new conmercial tuna 

 fisheries in all these areaso If these projects v;ere to be con- 

 tinued and expanded they would provide knowledge of new resources 

 which may be available to maintain or increase the needed pro- 

 duction of tuna. Research on new and modified types of fish gear 

 to increase efficiency, as well as electronic experiments in 

 locating schools of fish such as tuna, are being conducted. It 

 is believed by many tuna experts that alternate sources of live 

 tuna bait or live bait substitutes can be fotmd to relieve the 

 fleet of this source of considerable expense and trouble. It 

 has been proposed by the indxistry that the Fish and Wildlife 

 Service undertake a broad-scale research program to develop an 

 alternate bait for tuna. This is a field in viiich the Government 

 can be of great assistance to the fishing industry, as private 

 operators do not normally have the facilities or funds for 

 systematic scientific research o f this type . 



International Relations ^o/ 



As indicated in Chapter IV, the scope of American tuna 

 fishing operations off foreign shores, together with the highly 

 disordered state of foreign claims to fisheries control in adjacent 

 waters, has conspired to confront tiie industry with a production 

 problem that enters the field of international relations and raises 

 questions of international lav/. The United States Department of 

 State is devoting attention on a continuing basis to the reduction 

 of areas of friction and misunderstanding in the matter. The 

 encouragement and facilitation of the free exchange of factual 

 information regarding the tuna fishery, both of an economic and 

 scientific nature, is one way of meeting this objective. Another 

 is the negotiation of av^iropriate agreements once valid bases 

 therefor are established. These may relate to privileges within 



28/ Prepared by the Office of the Special Assistant for Fisheries and 

 Wildlife to the Under Secretary of State, United States Department of 

 State, as requested by the Fish and Wildlife Service, 



420 



