The ART OF FISH LOCATION has benefited more from modern 

 technology than has the art of catching. Various types of sonic 

 equipment have been used with some success for the past 20 years 

 or more. Even the standard fathometer is useful for this purpose. 

 With the most modern equipment, it is possible to determine the 

 depth and numbers of fish, not only immediately beneath the ves- 

 sel, but at distances of a mile or more. With experience, it is 

 also possible to recognize the kinds of fish on the record. But 

 much more needs to be done before the art of fish location can be- 

 come a science. Perhaps waves other than sound waves will 

 prove useful, and these should be investigated. It is interesting 

 also that many fishes and other nnarine animals produce distinc- 

 tive sounds. No one has yet put this knowledge to use in fishing. 



The ART OF CATCHING FISH, as I have already mentioned, 

 is one of the most primitive activities of man. This situation 

 did not arise entirely by chance, for increased efficiency with- 

 out regulation places an extra drain on the resource. Many laws 

 limit the efficiency of fishing operations in the name of conser- 

 vation. This often has been carried to ridiculous extremes, 

 such as, forbidding the use of power in fishing boats. Science 

 can help the fishing industry in two ways: by determining the 

 maximum sustainable yield for each fishery resource, and by 

 reducing the cost of catching fish to a minimum. But the tradi- 

 tion of conservation by inefficiency is so strong that it is diffi- 

 cult to put scientific management measures into effect even when 

 our scientific knowledge justifies them. 



Some of the most serious problems of our United States 

 fishing fleet today are economic in origin. As the world's pop- 

 ulation grows, and the fleets of the major fishing nations range 

 the world's oceans in search of protein food, it will be disas- 

 trous to the American fishing industry to operate under in- 

 efficient conditions. Indeed, because our living standards and 

 our wages are higher than those of any other nation, our fisher- 

 men need to be more efficient in order to compete successfully. 

 This will require the fullest use of instrumentation, both for 

 locating and for catching fish. 



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