245 



viously, the sportsmen buy fresh air and exercise rather than meat. For the entire 

 world, the take of freshwater fish amounted to 6.6 million tons in 1964 {S, Jf), and 

 the mammals that were hunted on land were guessed at 20 million tons (no data 

 are known to the writers). The values were computed as for the United States. 



Figures for the herding of animals are reasonably good. Only a minor quantity 

 of oysters and clams are cultivated in the United States, but a serious attempt 

 is being made in Japan where not only oysters and clams, but also squid, shrimp, 

 crabs, and yellowtail fish (Scriola) are being cultivated — all, so far, at costs in 

 excess of those for the hunting of the wild animals. According to a compilation 

 (7), the tonnage for Japanese "aquaculture" is about 0..5 million for 1964; that 

 for the rest of the world may be another 20 percent (Table 1). Production by 

 herding of animals on land also is well summarized by the USDA (2, 8). About 

 three-quarters of this total is milk, cheese, and eggs; only one-quarter is meat. 

 The dollar value is from the USDA's tabulation of farm income from livestock. 

 The world's total for hording was tabulated by the USDA (2), but the dollar 

 value was computed by the writers on a somewhat lower unit basis than for 

 the United States. 



For comparison with food resources, the value of minerals from the ocean 

 and land are included in Table 1 from a previous compilation of Emery (9). Of 

 these mineral resources, petroleum and natural gas are by far the greatest. In 

 terms of energy, the 1.6 billion barrels of petroleum produced from the ocean 

 floor during 1964 corresponded to 2.5X10^^ kilogram calorie, and the total oil, 

 gas, and coal that was produced on land and sea floor throughout the entire world 

 during 1964 (9) was equivalent to about 47X10''' kilogram calorie. In contrast, 

 the 2360 kilogram calorie average daily food intake of the world's human popu- 

 lation (2) totals about O.OOSXIO'' kilogram calories, but about half of this 

 energy is required merely to maintain bodily functions, leaving only about 0.004 

 XIO" kilogram calories of human energy to compete with the more than 10,000 

 times greater annual supply of energy from fossil fuels. 



CONCLUSIONS 



The figures in Table 1 yield some interesting results. The total annual value 

 of food and mineral resources taken from the ocean is $8.3 billion, in contrast to 

 $309 billion from the land. Using the land value as the yardstick, if the annual 

 value of produce from the ocean were in ratio to the area relationship of ocean 

 and land, the ocean potential would be $750 billion ; the actual recovery of 1964 

 was only 1.1 percent of that potential. This very low percentage is the basis for 

 either great optimism for the future development of the ocean (on the basis of 

 unrealized potential), or great pessimism (on the basis of high costs compared 

 with further development of land resources, or present exploration to near the 

 limit of productivity. ) 



Closer inspection of Table 1 indicates that the development of the marine 

 food resources is in a more primitive stage than the development of the resources 

 on land. For example, far more food is recovered from the ocean by primitive 

 techniques of gathering and hunting than by farming and herding. The situation 

 is greatly reversed on land with most recovery by farming and herding. Progress 

 toward the more advanced stages of food recovery in the ocean is inhibited by 

 political factors (failure of governments to agree on ownership of the ocean and 

 its often mobile food resources), by economic factors (high capital costs of 

 harvesting equipment as compared with costs ashore, and high labor costs under 

 union control), esthetic and tradition factors (tastes, customs, and religious 

 prejudices regarding food — witness the difficulty in securing acceptance by the 

 Food and Drug Administration of fish protein concentrate, the reluctance of 

 Americans to eat .squid, and of Orthodox Jews to eat shrimp), and industrial 

 factors (conservative design of fishing boats and equipment, and the preference 

 of American fishermen for small independent boats rather than the large ocean 

 factory ships used by the Soviets and Japanese) . 



Although the world fishery has been increasing quite rapidly in recent years 

 and the trend is likely to continue as more efficient fishing methods come into 

 wider use, the total yield continues to be very small as compared with that from 

 the land. The apparent reasons for this situation have been thoroughly discussed 

 by others (10) ; nevertheless, considerable controver.sy exists about whether the 

 ocean can support much more efficient and intensive hunting (11). Has overkill 

 been reached for oysters, lobsters, abalone, sardines, tuna, and whales just as it 



