APPENDIX VI APPENDIX VI 
18 
fishing effort by the United States and foreign fishermen has not in all 
cases been so great as to reduce the productivity of the stocks, still 
the catch by foreign fishermen has been of such a magnitude so as to 
significantly inerease the cost of fishing to United States-flag vessels 
and thus decrease the net return to domestic fishermen. That appears to 
be the case in several of the New England groundfish fisheries. 
Also, foreign fishermen physically interfere with American fishermen 
on fishing grounds off the United States coast traditionally fished by 
coastal fishermen. In the early years of the expansion of foreign 
fisheries on Georges Bank in New England, foreign fleets, fishing virtu- 
ally in formation, drove the smaller United States coastal vessels off 
the traditional fishing grounds. Picture a 3,000 ton factory trawler cf 
the Soviet Union--or mors often ten such vessels--trawling side by side 
across the fishing grounds and bearing down on a single 200 ton United 
States flag vessel, one-tenth or less the size. Because of the physical 
presence of large numbers of foreign fishing vessels, and resulting 
concern over losing both fishing gear and fishing time, the American 
coastal fishing fleet has suffered a significant reduction in effective- 
ness. The same thing has occurred off the Pacific Northwest coast of 
the United States where fleets of factory trawlers, 3,000 tons or more, 
from the Soviet Union have physically interfered with the salmon trolling 
and coastal groundfish fleet of the Pacific Northwest. }? 
Foreign fleets have also caused severe damage to the stationary 
fishing gear of the United States on the Atlantic Coast, especially to 
lobster traps. The gear losses have caused a great deal of difficulty 
and economic loss to the United States lobster fishermen. And, on the 
Pacific Coast, particularly in the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea, destruc- 
tion of king crab traps by Japanese and Soviet trawlers and the destruction 
of set halibut fishing gear by the large foreign trawlers have caused 
additional loss to American fishermen. This loss of gear became such a 
problem that a claims settlement board has been established by the 
United States and U.S.S.R. It must also be mentioned that the recent 
development of the offshore lobster fishery by the United States using 
fixed traps, interfered with the fishing by foreign fishermen on fishing 
grounds they had fished for several years. 
As a result of this intimidation by the large numbers of foreign 
vessels fishing on common fishing grounds with United States fishermen, 
the American fleet has avoided good fishing areas so as to prevent the 
loss of valuable and expensive fishing gear. However, in recent years 
bilateral agreements between the United States and a number of foreign 
countries whose fishermen fish off the coast of the United States have 
moderated the conflicts between United States and foreign fishermen. 
10 vidence submitted by Coast Guard, NMFS, and substantiated 
reports by fishermen to Department of State over the period 1960 to 
1974, 
409 
