31 



All of these questions pose serious problems. 



Question 1. What assets must men have to successfully 

 adopt new fishing technology and larger boats? 



Capital. The ability to amass capital depends not only 

 on the ability to save, and on having network ties to institu- 

 tions granting large amounts of capital, but also on certain 

 kinds of kinship ties. There is some suggestion that capital 

 for new fishing enterprises is often amassed by forming partner- 

 ships with close agnates as fishermen do in other countries 

 bordering the. North Atlantic (Lofgren, 1972: 91; Nemec, 1972: 

 17 ff.); under other conditions, men are set up in the fishing 

 business by affinal relatives. 



Skills. There is a great deal of evidence to suggest 

 that fishing and maintenance skills may be among the most criti- 

 cal factors influencing output of fishing boats and determining 

 success in commercial fishing, but it is very difficult to define 

 these skills and measure their effect on the production of fish. 

 Recently headway has been made in solving these problems 

 (Acheson , 1976) . 



Crew Organization. Larger boats which can remain on 

 fishing grounds for days at a time require a very different kind 

 of social organization of crev; members than small boats which go 

 day tripping or stay at sea for only two or three days (Anderson, 

 1969; Arbuckle, 1970). Crew organization is far more critical 

 to a successful fishing operation than has been previously 

 realized. Several large scale offshore fishing operations have 



