the relatively small number of persons involved in this industry has 

 led to unusually close cooperation between State and Federal 

 program personnel. 



There appears to be agreement between the States and the 

 menhaden industry that a cooperative State-Federal fisheries 

 management plan for this species is desirable because the resource, 

 which migrates between State jurisdictions, appears to be fished at 

 the maximum sustained yield level. If so, additional effort would 

 reduce present harvest levels, thus exacerbating the already critical 

 shortfall of fishmeal production in the United States. 



The High Seas Fisheries Conservation Act of 1973, which would 

 provide the Secretary of Commerce with the authority to cooperate 

 with the States in developing and enforcing high-seas fishing 

 regulations, was introduced in the Congress on February 27, 1973. 

 Hearings have been held by the House and extensive efforts are 

 being made by the House Subcommittee on Fisheries and Wildlife 

 Conservation and the Environment to find ways of fashioning this 

 legislation so that it best meets the needs of the resources, the States, 

 and recreational and commercial interest groups. 



The general purpose of these activities has been to enhance the 

 economic and social well-being not only of major segments of the 

 U.S. fishing industry, but to insure a continuous supply of fishery 

 products for the U.S. consumer and of feed supplements for the 

 poultry and swine industries. These activities have reduced 

 interstate conflicts by encouraging cooperation and have 

 emphasized the need for decisionmaking at the State level. This 

 latter achievement will become increasingly significant as, 

 inevitably, management decisions become allocation decisions 

 between recreational and commercial interests. 



INTERNATIONAL ASPECTS OF LIVING RESOURCES 



Increasing fishing effort for dwindling stocks in established 

 fisheries prompted the United States in 1973 to seek more effective 

 arrangements through international fishery commissions. At the 

 ICNAF annual meeting in June 1973, the United States' proposed a 

 new system that would limit fishing effort off the northeast Atlantic 

 Coast. The U.S. proposal had originally been made in late 1972 and 

 had previously been considered at a special ICNAF meeting in 

 January 1973 and at meetings of experts in March and May 1973. In 

 spite of significant progress, many ICNAF Members harbored 

 considerable misgivings about an effort control scheme. Fishing 

 effort per se had not previously been regulated, and many technical 

 questions arose about this new approach to fisheries management. 



In the debate at the annual meeting it became clear that many 

 members were not ready to accept controls on fishing effort. Some 



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