194 OCEANOGRAPHY 



bing of currents against sea mounts, islands, and tlie continents creates condi- 

 tions that result in increased production of tuna food. 

 ■ The same sort of thing is found to a greater or less extent in the open sea a 

 thousand or more miles from shore at the interfaces between any two currents. 

 This produces turbulence, this turbulence results in greater production of food 

 tuna like, where there is food tuna aggregate, and where tuna aggregate we 

 fishermen try to be. Tuna are found in more or less commercial quantities in 

 all seas of the world where the temperature is right irregardless of distance 

 from land. This is generally from the thermocline to the surface in those seas 

 commonly called temperate, subtropical and tropical. 



The consumption of tuna has been increasing very sharply in the United States 

 since the war, having tripled since 1947. Approximately the same thing has 

 been going on in the other two principal tuna markets of tlie world (Japan and 

 Europe). In the last few years tuna markets of consequential size have opened 

 up and expanded in perhaps 20 other countries around the world. There does 

 not appear at present any limit to this expansion on a worldwide basis. Large 

 stocks of tuna which are yet untapped or barely tapped by commercial fisheries 

 are known ; the worldwide need for more low-cost high-protein food is so well 

 known as to require no further elaboi-ation. 



Thus the trend in the tuna fishery of the w-orld has been one of rapid expan- 

 sion since the war and this will likely be the trend for some years into the fu- 

 ture. The expansion of market has brought equivalent expansion in- fishing areas 

 both along the coast and on out to sea. From the experience of this expansion 

 the big, expensive, highly mechanized long-range vessel has developed to be 

 much the cheaper and more efficient in terms of cost per ton of production than 

 the smaller coastal boat, despite the large initial capital cost of the former. 

 This larger vessel has made distance from port or type of sea less important to 

 the tuna fishermen than it used to be ; fishing trips extending over several 

 months and ranging 10,000 miles or more are not unusual. 



The Japanese, having had the economic advantage over us in the past 10 

 years, have expanded most rapidly both geographically and productionwise. 

 They now fish customarily in all suitable waters of the Pacific Ocean, Indian 

 Ocean, and Atlantic Ocean. Their tuna fishery in the mid-Atlantic is only 4 

 years old I)ut will produce about 85,000 tons of tuna this year. To illustrate 

 how little distance means to tuna fishermen any more, some Japanese fisherman 

 go to the Atlantic tuna grounds by crossing the Pacific from home and using 

 the Panama Canal ; others, with equal facility, go by way of Singapore, the 

 Indian Ocean and Cape of Good Hope, and they may deliver a load of tuna 

 in. Italy and return home by way of the Mediterranean and the Suez Canal, 

 fishing in the Indian Ocean on their return trip. The central Atlantic appears 

 to the modern tuna fishermen to be rather a small enclosed sea. Once the long 

 journey to get there is completed he moves back and forth across it in fishing with 

 not much less trouble than the small coastal boats in a big bay. 



By reason of extreme Japanese competition in our own markets we American 

 tuna fishermen have been slowed and hampered in our similar geographic and 

 production expansion. Nevertheless, we <'ustomarily fish the eastern Pacific 

 Ocean from southern British Colombia to northern Chile, and in recent years 

 our vessels have engaged in exploratory trips to the Juan Fernandez, Society, 

 Tuomotu, Marquesas, Line. Phoenix, and Hawaiian Islands in the Pacific, 

 throughout the Caribbean, and across the Atlantic to the west coast of Africa 

 from Mauretania on the north to Angola on the south. Quite recent very 

 sharp technological advances in our fishing methods have so lowered our cost iier 

 ton of production that we are not at all sure but what our rate of geographic 

 and production expansion in the n-ext 10 years may not begin to approach that 

 which has been enjoyed by the Japanese tuna fishermen over the last 10 years. 

 These introductory comments have been made to illustrate that our interest in 

 the study of the ocean is as broad as the ocean and practically as broad as the 

 subject of oceanography. The whole trick in our business is to deliver tuna at 

 a price which the housewife will pay against competing protein foods and to 

 keep our cost of doing this with enough margin to pay our capital and operating 

 costs and leave a reasonable margin of profit to the boatowners and earnings 

 to the fishermen. More intensive study of the ocean mny w^ell contribute to 

 our ability to do this on an increasing scale by giving its the knowledge needed 

 to prevent us from overfishing any stocks of tuna we work (which would raise 

 our cost per ton of production), enable us to locate and catch a load of tuna 

 quicker (which would cut our cost per ton of production), and prevent foreign 

 governments from harassing our vessels while normally plying their trade on 

 the high seas (which would raise our cost per ton of production). 



