INTERNATIONAL REGULATIONS OF FISHERIES ON THE HIGH SEAS, 143 
While at present the high seas yield about 1 per cent of the food of man, 
an examination of the conditions leads to the belief that there are potentiali- 
ties of an enormous increase. All animal nutrition may be traced to a vege- 
table origin. Although marine vegetation does not grow in forest-like masses, 
yet owing to its distribution at different depths and to the extensive area of 
the seas, its production probably exceeds that on land. Practically all of it 
is available for animal nutrition, whereas a very considerable part of land 
vegetation is not available for food. Thus marine vegetation either directly 
or indirectly supports a great quantity of animal life, which in aggregate weight 
doubtless equals the continental animals. In consideration of these conditions, 
it seems that when the increase in population of the earth requires much more 
thorough utilization of our resources, the draft on the seas will be vastly 
increased and they will be far more important factors in the food problems of 
mankind. 
It is to the common interest of all nations to prevent indiscriminate destruc- 
tion and consequent extermination of resources which contribute so exten- 
sively to the commercial wealth and general use of mankind. Useless destruc- 
tion is a crime against posterity. Doubtless a century hence no policy of our 
great President will add more largely to his credit than his efforts toward pre- 
serving the natural resources, and no branch of these resources calls for more 
thorough international consideration and action than the resources of the 
high seas. 
Upon the subject of the preservation of these resources, so that their yield 
may continue undiminished, there is so much that is appropriate to be said 
that one is lost in the abundance of it. The animal and vegetable products of 
the seas differ almost as widely in their characteristics and needs as those on 
land, and equally diversified and complicated are the problems concerning the 
most favorable conditions of their production and development. But within 
the limits of this paper it is possible to discuss these questions only in the most 
general way. 
Fortunately the problem of sewage pollution, doubtless the greatest destruc- 
tive factor in the inland and the coastal fisheries, has little or no existence in 
a consideration of the resources of the high seas. ’ 
From the standpoint of protective needs, the fishery products of the high 
seas may be roughly divided into four general classes, viz: (1) The migratory 
species, such as herring, mackerel, bluefish, etc.; (2) the bottom or demersal 
species, such as cod, haddock, flounder, and flatfish, which are less migratory 
in their habits and remain in the same general locality; (3) the aquatic mam- 
mals; and (4) those products which are fixed to the bottom and are susceptible 
of ownership, as sponges, pearl oysters, ete. 
As regards the migratory fishes, there is an increasing belief that serious 
impairment of these species is beyond our present demands on them, and that 
