OCEAN SCIENCES AND NATIONAL SECURITY 47 



A number of imaginative suggestions have been made concerning 

 means of increasing supply of marine life from the sea, including the 

 artificial circulation of water rich in life-sustaining chemicals from 

 great depths. Numerous other proposals are bound to arise but in 

 all cases their feasibility and practical development require research. 

 Any such research, entirely apart from increasing stocks of fish, might 

 go far toward eliminating the changes in abundance and availability 

 which make the fishing industr}^ so uncertain. These fluctuations 

 are, to a great extent, unaccounted for. For example, menhaden, a 

 herring-like fish, may yield no oil in some j^ears and in others as 

 much as 60 gallons per ton of fish. In a single month of one year it 

 has been observed to vary between 5 and 40 gallons per ton. There 

 is now evidence that trace elements may be as vital to life in the 

 seas as on the shore, but there are many unknowns concerning what 

 comprise life-stimulating properties. 



In this connection, sea water appears to contain certain antibiotics 

 which, under some circumstances, may be important. To nonmarine 

 bacteria, sea water is curiously antagonistic, and they cannot be culti- 

 vated on nutrient agar prepared with it. In fact, sea water kills 80 

 percent of the coliform organisms in sewage within a half hour, and 

 it has been proven that it is not the salt content which produces this 

 effect. Thus, even in the sea, the battle between micro-organisms 

 appears to continue, despite the fabulous dilutions which the vast 

 quantities of sea water afford. 



The uncertainties of success in fishing have clearl}^ made this an 

 unattractive area for capital investment. As a consequence, the 

 industry itself has had but limited funds to invest in fishery research, 

 and the responsibility for improvement in fisheries has been left 

 almost wholly to Government. Walford, in revieA\ang this problem, 

 has noted — 



Most people who have thought about the matter agree that even in the most 

 advanced countries, fishing, as compared with other food-producing occupations, is 

 still at a low level of development. Fishermen are like hunters and gatherers in 

 primitive societies. Their techniques and apparatus — hook and line, traps and 

 nets — are essentially the same as they have always been. Fishing is everywhere 

 a difficult occupation, and although fishermen in a few special situations are 

 sometimes prosperous, most of them are perennially poor. * * * Perhaps new 

 methods need to be devised, radically different from anything that has been 

 used. These are most likely to be achieved if based on the principle of behavior 

 of marine animals. Research to discover these principles is fundamental to 

 development of the science of fisheries.^2 



Activities beneath the surface lie well concealed from human view. 

 Thus, studies of how fish live and s\\-im, how they react to artificial 

 stimiili, such as sounds, electrical currents, bright illumination, and 

 turbulence require du-ect observation. Yet, this is now technically 

 feasible for, as mentioned earlier, man ma}' now descend into the 

 ocean at almost any depth, safeh^ to observe marine species in their 

 natural environment. The Soviets have equipped one of their 

 submarines, the Severyanka, with portholes for such observations. 

 The Bm-eau of Commercial Fisheries has contemplated such projects 

 in efforts to study the Pacific tuna. Modern technology affords 

 opporttmities now as never before to study fish and the process of 

 fishing and thus to reduce the elements of luck and of lore, and to 

 minimize the chance association which fishermen siiperstitiously 



« " Living Resources of the Sea," <>p. cit , i'. yfs. 



