Marine Science Affairs 



are intended to offset, in part, the high costs of ship construction and opera- 

 tion to American fishermen compared with the costs to some foreign com- 

 petitors. These programs consist of loans for fishing vessels and gear, fishing 

 vessel mortgage and loan insurance, and fishing vessel construction differ- 

 ential subsidies. Two large stem ramp trawlers, each capable of processing 

 two million pounds of fishery products during a 60 to 90 day trip, were 

 completed under the subsidy program. They are the first vessels of this 

 type in the U.S. fishing fleet; one will operate off the Atlantic Coast and 

 the other off the Pacific Coast. The Bureau also administers three grant-in- 

 aid programs to the States for research and development as a basis for 

 more effective management of commercial fishery resources. 



The Atomic Energy Commission supports a broad range of advanced 

 investigations related to the presence of radionuclides in the oceans, their 

 interactions with organisms, and the use of tracers in oceanic research. 

 Other research has demonstrated that the ice-storage shelf-life of haddock, 

 cod, sole, and shrimp can be extended from 7 to 14 days by irradiation. 



The Food and Drug Administration has assumed responsibility for the 

 Shellfish Sanitation Program, a Federal-State-industry program designed 

 to insure safety of shellfish shipped in interstate commerce through surveil- 

 lance of water quality, evaluation of sanitation facilities of packers and ship- 

 pers, and review of State control programs. FDA research programs include 

 the nutritional and health aspects of marine foods, marine bacterial toxins 

 and pharmaceuticals, and use of marine life in biomedical research. Related 

 research of the HEW's Environmental Control Administration includes 

 studies of the course of viral pollutants in estuaries, their accumulation by 

 shellfish, and the effectiveness of purification processes in removing these 

 viruses from shellfish. 



The Smithsonian Institution provides essential back-up information on 

 the kinds of fishery organisms being sampled, produces monographs and 

 guides to the identity of harvested organisms and those serving as food 

 for commercial species, provides information on the populations and dis- 

 tributions of species which might have commercial importance or which 

 are parasites and predators on useful species, and provides a sorting service 

 for bulk samples of marine species. 



The Coast Guard participates in enforcement of international fishery 

 arrangements. 



Using Food from the Sea in the War on Hunger 



In recognition that food from the sea offers considerable promise in 

 meeting a portion of the world's protein deficiency, the United States 

 embarked in 1967 on a new Food-from-the-Sea Program with the Agency 



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