198 OCEANOGRAPHY 



any sort for a decade, or two, or three. In the herring fishery of the Nor- 

 wegian Sea (for instance), one of the most productive fisheries in the world, 

 statistics are avail:il)le .noin^ baclv to the 13th century illustrating that such 

 long cyclic fluctuations have happened repeatedly and with some degree of regu- 

 larity in that fishery. 



This discourse has in every point vastly oversimplified the difficulty of solv- 

 ing the problems faced by the ocean fishery scientist and conservationist in the 

 fisheries of the high seas, and even such an oversimplified discussion may lead 

 you to believe that the problems are so complicated as to be incapable of solution. 



And yet they must be solved, for amity among the family of nations depends 

 upon their solution in a very real sense. Wars between tlie nations have been 

 started over the yield of the marine fisheries in the past. Examples are the 

 "herring" wars between the Dutch and English in the late Middle Ages. 

 American colonial participation in the French-Indian wars drew New England 

 support from the New England desire to establish themselves closer to the bank 

 fisheries of the Nova Scotia coast. 



It is hardly conceivable that war between nations could be started over the 

 yield of sea fisheries today and yet this is one of the most active sources of 

 discord among nations all around the world now, and this seems likely to in- 

 crease as time goes forward. 



One of the strongest strains in the NATO relationships has been the con- 

 troversy that has raged for years between Iceland and England over the fisheries 

 of the Icelandic Continental Shelf. A primary strain among our allies in the 

 Far East is the apparently irreconcilable controversy over fisheries between 

 Japan and Korea. In the Mediterranean area our allies Greece and Turkey 

 quarrel continually over the fisheries of the eastern Aegean and northeast Medi- 

 terranean. In the Adriatic Sea the scpxabble over fisheries is a principal factor 

 in keeping the diplc^matic relations between Yugoslavia and Italy strained. In 

 the Indian Ocean Ceylon and India have important high seas fishery rights in 

 dispute. In southeast Asia our allies Thailand and Cambodia (piarrel over the 

 yield of the sea fisheries. 



The adverse effects of fishery disputes upon the diplomatic relations of the 

 United States is not confined to keeping peace among its allies, although I 

 have only touched lightly upon these problems in the paragraph above. We 

 have fishery diplomatic troubles of a serious nature of our own with Canada, 

 with Mexico, with Chile, Ecuador and Peru, and with Japan. 



All of these problems are intensifying by the months as the sea fisheries of 

 the world are being expanded rapidly by the old fishing nations, and are being 

 entered b.v one after another of the nations which never had a high sea fishery 

 before. This is going on with great rapidity. Ten years ago Peru was not 

 considered to be a fishing country. Today its fish catch is among the top five 

 of the countries in the world. In that 10 years the fishery of Panama has come 

 from nothing to being f>ne of that country's principal sources of exports. In that 

 10-year period the yield of the tuna fisheries of the world has approximately 

 doubled. 



The magnitude of these great changes that are going forward in the high seas 

 fisheries of the world is epitomized by the enormous expansion being made in the 

 fisheries of Russia. Russia has already become either the second or third largest 

 fish producer in the world. Her plans for the next 7 years envision her in- 

 creasing the total fish production of the high seas of the world by 20 to 25 percent 

 by her own efforts, and there is no reason to expect that she will not reach that 

 goal. She is already conceded 20 i>ercent of the Antarctic whale fishery. Her 

 vessels have become important factors in the North Sea, Norwegian Sea, and 

 Iceland fisheries. She has 200 big trawlers at work off the Grand Banks and in 

 that vicinity. Her fleets now fish off Liberia, Ghana, and Nigeria in West 

 Africa. A Russian gill netter trying the menhaden fishery recently off loaded 

 a sick seaman for medical care at one of our eastern ports. Her trawling fleets 

 are working off the coast of Alaska in eastern Bering Sea and her exploratory 

 vessels have been seen in the Gulf of Alaska. Her tuna fishermen have been 

 seen in tlie Trust Territories of the western tropical I'aciflc. 



The upshot of all of these expansions in tlie high seas fisheries of the world is 

 that one after another of these fisheries is going to liecome "mature." as we 

 call fisheries that have reached the point of maximum sustainable yield. When 

 this happens another problem arises. How is the quota which can be produced 

 from each of these mature fisheries annually going to be divided among the 

 fishermen not only who fish them now, but of those hungry nations who will 

 want to fish them in the future? The resources of the high seas are not like 



