192 MARINE PRODUCTS OF COMMERCE 



and equipment required may vary from the simplest to a high degree of com- 

 plexity in both the mechanisms employed and the training required. Family par- 

 ticipation is not uncommon, and the minimum investment needed to begin opera- 

 tions can be nominal. The versatihty available in fisheries extends also to the 

 purpose for which the activity is pursued. Although they serve primarily as a 

 source of lucrative employment, both those who engage in subsistence fishing to 

 feed themselves and their families and those who fish for sport are appreciable in 

 number. In more than one country, in time of need, fishermen have been avail- 

 able to form a solid core of skilled personnel on the rosters of naval and merchant 

 vessels. Their fishing craft have also been invaluable as naval auxiliaries for every- 

 thing from spotting the enemy to carrying supplies. 



The role of the fisheries in exploration, migration, and trade has been impressive 

 in the past and still prevails in the same tradition. The search for cod brought 

 fleets to North America long before colonization occurred. Although modem 

 vessels do not have huge unknown expanses to explore, they continue to seek new 

 grounds in uncharted areas. Whalers would range the globe as formerly if con- 

 servation measures did not limit them to the Antarctic. Trade, migration, and 

 settlement develop naturally after new fishing grounds have been discovered, 

 simply because outlets for the catch can seldom be found locally and the urge to 

 increase production usually demands a locally based operation. 



Perhaps one of the most vital factors adding to the importance of the fisheries 

 is the uniquely international character of the resoiu-ce. The world's marine fishery 

 resources are primarily international in nature. Of the United States catch, for 

 example, an appreciable portion is taken off foreign coasts and a considerable part 

 of the remainder is taken in international waters off the United States coasts. No 

 other natural resource has the same status, nor is any comparable activity subject 

 to similar international incidents and complications arising from jurisdictional dis- 

 putes. Furthermore, fishery resources are renewable. They require no planting, 

 only some means of harvesting the ever-recurring yield. This again complicates 

 their status because of man's responsibility for only one part of the cycle. 



Approaches toward solving the problems posed by the international character 

 of fishery resources and their natural renewability have been made through in- 

 ternational treaties, conventions, and proclamations. The most significant have 

 been those which resulted in the establishment of such bodies as the International 

 Council for the Exploration of the Sea in Europe and several treaties which have 

 resulted in the management of the fur seal resources of the Pribilof Islands in the 

 Bering Sea, the Pacific halibut fisheries, and the sockeye salmon fisheries of 

 British Columbia and the State of Washington (Allen, 1936; Anon., 1939; Day, 

 1949). The proclamation issued by President Truman on September 28, 1945, 

 entitled "Policy of the United States with Respect to Coastal Fisheries in Certain 

 Areas of the High Seas," represents a new, but as yet unimplemented, develop- 

 ment which, however, has brought forth similar but more far-reaching proclama- 

 tions from a number of Latin American countries (Truman, 1945). 



Bilateral and multilateral approaches include the convention between the 

 United States and Mexico for the establishment of an International Commission 

 for Scientific Investigation of Tuna and the convention between the United 

 States and Costa Rica for the establishment of an Inter-American Tropical Tuna 

 Commission (Anon., 1949d). The latter is multilateral, providing for the ad- 



