18 SEA GRANT COLLEGES 



through the establishment and continuance of programs of educa- 

 tion, training and research in the marine sciences, we can build for 

 ourselves a dynamic new future, and overcome generations of inac- 

 tion through the application of modern techniques, and modern scien- 

 tific achievement. I can think of no piece of legislation at this time 

 that I consider more meaningful to my particular city, to our coun- 

 try, and mankind generally, than S. 2439, which could set into motion 

 a series of programs which could affect the course of history and pro- 

 vide untold benefits for mankind. 



I wish to thank you, Senator, for permitting me to come here. 



Senator Pell. Thank you very much for coming. Mayor Har- 

 rington. 



Now, point No. 1, in your testimony where you mentioned that New 

 Bedford was the second most productive fishing port per dollar vol- 

 ume in the United States. Could you enlarge on that? Does that 

 mean you had the largest gross catch landed there or is that in rela- 

 tionship to dollar earnings ? 



Mayor Harrington. Well, actually the fish landed from all Ameri- 

 can boats fishing commercially in the port of New Bedford is sec- 

 ond only to San Pedro, Calif., and in the last few years we have made 

 tremendous gains and strides and additions to to our fishing fleet. 

 We are in the process now of building a $7i/^ million pier to ac- 

 commodate more boats. We hope that within the next 3 years the dol- 

 lar volume of fish in the port of New Bedford will exceed any other 

 area of the United States. We are also in the process of negotiating 

 a contract with Van Camp's Sea Food Co. which is the largest fish- 

 eries company in the entire world to locate a plant in New Bedford, 

 and they are, or have indicated that they will, possibly make New 

 Bedford their world fish headquarters and bring to the city of New 

 Bedford their laboratory and facilities dedicated to marine research. 



Senator Pell. I wonder if you could tell us a little something about 

 a fish protein concentrate plant in your city. 



Mayor Harrington. There is some conflict in this matter. Senator. 

 There is a professor at the University of Illinois, who, many years 

 ago developed a process of making fish flour, it was called that then, 

 later it was transferred into the terminology now called fish protein 

 concentrate. The professor's name was Levin. Anyway, as Levin 

 discovered a formula for creating and producing fish protein concen- 

 trate, he established two plants for commercial production of fish pro- 

 tein concentrate. One in New York and one in New Bedford. Now, 

 he has invested over $2 million of his own capital in this production. 

 Actually, all we are producing in New Bedford right now is a fish 

 concentrate which can be converted back to fish flour within a rela- 

 tively short time and rather inexpensively. But, something unusual 

 which developed is that back in I960', I believe, the Food and Drug 

 Administration refused to pennit the fish flour or fish protein con- 

 centrate to be sold internally in the United States, Dr. Levin at that 

 point refused to export on the theory that even though he could keep 

 these plants in full production, that was not beneficial to mankind to 

 export a product which the Food and Drug Administration said 

 should not be sold to Americans. He felt that in the Nation's best in- 

 terests that should not be done. 



When I became mayor of New Bedford in 1961, John F. Kennedv 

 was the President of the United States. We had a conference with 



