Figure VI-1 — Fishery Catch, Resources and Areas of Protein 

 Deficiency, 1968 



C 



Billions of pounds of fishery products (live weight) 

 Major fishery resources 



Very low animal protein intake 

 Low animal protein intake 



men harvest but one-tenth of this potential ; foreign fishermen take most of 

 the fish caught in international waters off the U.S. coast. While world fishery 

 production shown in figure VI-2 has sharply increased, the annual catch 

 by U.S. fishermen has remained almost level at 2.2 million tons. Moreover, 

 while U.S. fish consumption has trebled during the last three decades, and 

 while today the United States provides the most lucrative world market 

 for fishery products, only a small part of our total fish consumption is pro- 

 vided by domestic fishermen. In 1969, about 60 percent of the total U.S. 

 supply of fish products came from imports. Figure VI-3 portrays the trend 

 of the U.S. supply of fishery products. The sharp decline in U.S. fish imports 

 last year resulted from a short supply and higher prices of fish meal for 

 animal feed on the world market and the substitution of soybean as an 

 alternative protein source. 



The generally static condition in parts of the harvesting segment of the 

 U.S. fish food industry contrasts with the dynamic growth of some parts 

 of the processing and distribution segments of the industry. A few branches 

 of the harvesting industry — such as the shrimp and tropical tuna indus- 

 tries — are growing, energized by technology and aggressive management 

 developed at home and in overseas operations. U.S. processing and distribu- 

 tion firms have established extensive collecting networks for raw and semi- 

 processed fishery products in more than 30 countries, primarily in the 

 developing world.' 



This increasing dependence on foreign sources for primary production 

 has occurred because many bulk raw fish and fish products can be secured 

 at a lower cost from foreign than from U.S. producers. The high costs of U.S. 

 producers compared to foreign result from a number of factors, including 



^ The Council contract report "Multinational Investment Opportunities in Ocean 

 Activities" describes some of these activities. 



84 



