DEVELOPMENT AND CONSERVATION OF THE TUNA 

 FISHERIES OF THE PACIFIC 



By MiLNER B. SCHAEFER 



Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission 



Scripps Institution of Oceanography 



La Jolla, California, U.S.A. 



In recent years, it has often been pointed out that in order to keep 

 up with the food demands of a growing population, man must turn 

 to the sea as a major source of protein food. In point of fact, the 

 utiHzation of the food resources of the sea has been increasing at a 

 rapid rate for some decades. With the development of steam propul- 

 sion for fishing craft late in the last century, followed by the develop- 

 ment of diesel engines, the sea fisheries have expanded rapidly in scope 

 and intensity of fishing. At the same time, improved techniques of 

 preserving and transporting fish have broadened the market for the 

 catches. This expansion of the fisheries has been most rapid, of course, 

 in those seafaring nations whose technological development is most 

 advanced (Canada, the United States and Japan in the case of the 

 Pacific Ocean). Other nations, however, have also participated in the 

 development, and there is, at present, considerable time and money 

 being expended by various agencies to assist the nations with little 

 development of fisheries to expand them by the application of modern 

 technological advances imported from other areas, or by the forced 

 evolution of their indigenous methods. 



Because of problems of preservation of the catch, as well as econo- 

 mic factors, the fisheries closest to the ports of landing tend always to 

 be most heavily exploited. Furthermore, the hazardous nature of sea- 

 faring, with the consequent need for larger and more costly craft to 

 exploit distant oceanic fishing areas, favors the development of the in- 

 shore fisheries. In consequence, many of the demersal and inshore fish 

 populations are now fully or nearly fully exploited. The Pacific sal- 

 mon fisheries, for example, are certainly not capable of any increase in 

 catch, except as better management may increase somewhat the effi- 

 ciency of utilization of the populations of these species. The Eastern 

 Pacific halibut stocks are controlled by scientific management, having 

 been overfished in the 1920's and 1930's. The formerly large fisheries 

 for sardines have declined both on the western and eastern sides of the 

 Pacific. There is some question as to how much of the decline of the 



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