APPENDIX III APPENDIEX ehh 
Harvesting capability 
The Fishery Conservation and Management Act of 1976 
requires fishery management plans to include the capacity 
of the fleet and the extent to which U.S. vessels will har- 
vest available resources. The Atlantic groundfish fleet 
has the capacity to appreciably increase present landings. 
The extent of available additional capacity and the extent 
to which U.S. vessels will increase their harvest of available 
resources, however, has not been fully determined. NMFS and 
a Sea Grant university are developing this information. A 
NMFS official explained that the fleet capacity and the 
amount harvested depend on a variety of factors including 
the number of trips made and the mix of species caught. The 
species mix depends on stock abundance, harvesting cost, and 
ex-vessel price for each species. 
Less popular species provide an opportunity to substan- 
tially increase current harvests. U.S. vessels now concen- 
trate on popular species, such as cod, ocean perch, and 
flounders because high prices for those species result in 
higher returns. Low prices or unstable prices for other 
more abundant species, such as red hake and silver hake 
make those fisheries less attractive to U.S. vessel owners. 
In 1974 U.S. fishermen caught 83 million pounds or 74 per- 
cent of the cod, haddock, and ocean perch caught off the 
Atlantic coast, while foreigners caught 323 million pounds, 
or 90 percent of the silver hake and red hake. If resource 
abundance is increased to levels approximating the MSY, silver 
hake and red hake would make up 331 of the 536 million addi- 
tional pounds of groundfish which could become available to 
U.S. fishermen. 
Product development and processing 
Substantial capacity is available to increase fresh 
groundfish production. U.S. groundfish landings are sold 
largely in the fresh fish market, if this market is saturated 
the excess groundfish are then sold in the lower priced 
frozen fillet and steak market. Faced with reduced landings 
and increased frozen imports having a cost advantage, domestic 
fillet and steak production has declined. 
As U.S. landings increase, ex-vessel prices are generally 
expected to decline. Increased volume will allow more effi- 
cient utilization of existing processing facilities and 
lower production costs. Processors then will be in a better 
position to invest in new equipment and will also be better 
able to compete in frozen markets with imported products. An 
industry official believes that rising costs in Canada will 
also improve the competitive position of U.S. processors. 
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