34 



had a larger hold capacity, speed in all weather, ability to fish in 



nearly all weather, radio and later other aids, and therefore the capability 



to range widely into previously unexplored regions. 



At this point, the period between the two World Wars, international 

 grounds in the northeast Atlantic, close to European nations, experienced 

 some evidence of stock depletions. Initial international agreements were 

 established. 



Following the Second World War, worldwide fisheries again changed. 

 The development of the stern trawler and on-board processing capability, 

 availability of many of the war-developed electronic aids (radar, loran, 

 sonar), huge increases in vessel size, and a vast increase in worldwide pro- 

 tein demand, all served to reinforce a trend established in all inshore 

 fisheries: threats of stock depletion and an international acceptance of the 

 need to manage the common-property resource. 



Initially neglected by distant-water fleets, Georges Bank, located 50 



to 200 miles due east of Cape Cod, had traditionally served as a mainstay of 



the New England fishery, producing nearly one-half million tons of a few 



selected species eyery year. To the foreign factory fleets constructed in 



the early 1960s, Georges Bank offered 



...a number of fish stocks that had been neglected by New England 

 offshore fishermen in their pursuit of traditionally more valued 

 species such as yellow-tail flounder and haddock. Under-fished 

 stocks of herring, mackerel, silver hake, and cod provided the large, 

 seasonally concentrated schools of fish that were ideal for intensive 

 fishing by large fleets. The entire fleet would be deployed to har- 

 vest a targeted species and when the catch rate of that species be- 

 came unacceptable, the fleet would then be redeployed to search for 

 another concentrated stock of fish. This strategy employed by the 

 large vessel fleets is called pulse fishing. (41) 



Soviet trawlers were first seen on Georges Bank in 1961, followed 



rapidly by vessels from at least fifteen nations. By 1965, an average of 



