Institutional Constraints 



In cases where American fisheries are not competing effectively with 

 their foreign counterparts, institutional constraints have been cited as 

 a principal cause. Domestic laws, customs, regulations — both inter- 

 national and local — limit the catch of a fisherman or group of fisher- 

 men. The restrictions include limitation on the area to be fished, 

 fishing season, type of gear, boats, or the fishing techniques. 



In private fishing grounds, it is quite natural and expected that 

 rules are advantageous to the owner. Private property of individ- 

 uals or the territorial waters of nations are often thus regulated. 

 Wlien there is common access and ownership, however — e.g., the re- 

 sources of the high seas — or when the resources are owned by a po- 

 litical entity but open to public harvesting — e.g., the oysterbeds in 

 Chesapeake Bay — regulation is more difficult. 



Regulation may be necessary to mediate conflicting user interests, 

 such as between sport and commercial fishing. Restrictions may 

 also be imposed to conserve a sustainable supply. Such measures, in 

 the form of limited seasons and limited take per person, are commonly 

 and successfully applied to inland sport fishing and game but these 

 measures are not so adaptable to commercial fishing on the open seas. 

 Here other solutions have been employed, including the controversial 

 device of limiting the efficiency of the catching equipment. 



As more fishermen participate in fisheries, the share for each fisher- 

 man diminishes. In the future it may be necessary to consider these 

 problems more broadly and to initiate new forms of international co- 

 operation and management for the high seas fisheries. This is espe- 

 cially important as nations move to industrial methods and thus in- 

 crease the threat to maintaining sustainable yields. 



The initiative discussed next carries an implicit obligation: to de- 

 velop a unified global approach to fisheries that harmonize national 

 interests, conservation needs, and economic incentives. 



A New Initiative for the Future 



We propose to embark on an intensified, long-range program to 

 exploit the oceans as a source of food to help feed the undernourished 

 people of the world. This program would begin to implement pro- 

 visions of the Marine Resources and Engineering Development Act 

 of 1966 and respond to the expressed intentions of the Nation to make 

 effective use of the sea in the war on hunger. 



The primary objectives are : 



— to alleviate human hunger by long-range programs carefully 

 designed to extract more usable food from the sea, by the United 

 States and other nations ; 



— to assume international leadership by policies that look to peace- 



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