APPENDIX III APPENDIX III 
Marketing potential 
As resource abundance increases, U.S. processors will be 
able to increase sales of traditional products in existing 
fresh fish markets. Markets for popular species such as 
cod, haddock, and flounders are strong, but limited supplies 
have hindered market expansion. NMFS and industry officials 
also believe that U.S. processors will be better able to 
compete with imports in the large domestic market for frozen 
fillets and that U.S. processors may be able to produce fish 
blocks at prices competitive with imports. 
Opportunities also exist to develop new markets and 
export markets for underutilized groundfish. For example, 
an NMFS program to develop fisheries for underutilized re- 
sources sponsored a European marketing study which evaluated 
market factors in Western Europe for several underutilized 
Species, including silver hake. The study estimated that 
the European import market for hakes is about 230 million 
pounds. 
OBSTACLES TO GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT 
Resource availability and management controls 
Overfishing, due to inadequate management controls anda 
lack of timely action to conserve fishery resources, has been 
the most important reason for reduced resource availability. 
The lack of precise data has also contributed to the problem. 
As noted previously, heavy fishing pressure by both U.S. 
and foreign fishermen during the 1960s and early 1970s 
resulted in major declines in groundfish abundance. In 
1969 ICNAF adopted catch quotas for haddock and during the 
early 1970s improved attempts to control fishing effort by 
adopting catch quotas and country allocations, size limits, 
mesh regulations and area closures. By 1974 quotas were 
enforced on all species either singly or in groups and a 
total quota for all species was set at a level less than the 
sum of the individual quotas. The Fishery Conservation and 
Management Act of 1976, by extending U.S. exclusive juris- 
diction over groundfish resources to 200 miles off U.S. coasts, 
provides the frame work for more effective resource manage- 
MeMitRCOniiEno ly. 
Because groundfish species intermix, several species are 
usually caught when trawling. Also, small groundfish are 
Caught in small mesh nets used in other fisheries, such as 
the shrimp fishery. 
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