SEA GRANT COLLEGES 49 



Two questions now appear: (a) are there resources close at hand to areas 

 of protein malnutrition where adequate fish can be gotten to where the need ex- 

 ists in a practical manner, and (b) can it be processed and gotten to the bellies 

 that need it in a form they will accept at prices they can, and will, pay? As we 

 go along you will see that the answers to these global questions are not simple 

 and straightforward, and could stand being approached by people somewhat better 

 educated to handle them than those of us in this generation who have been trying 

 to do so. 



To pass from the global to the strictly United States fishery scene three 

 sorts of numbers define the fishery development problem pretty well. 



The domestic fish catch was 4.5 billion pounds in 1964. This was about 

 average for the range from 4 to 5.5 billion pound catch where domestic fish pro- 

 duction has rested for 30 years with no trend up or down. 



While we have remained static in fish catch, fish use in the United States 

 has continued to increase at about the world increase rate of three times the 

 rate of population increase. In 1948, the fish use in the United States in terms 

 of round weight was 5,641 naillion pounds or about 38 pounds per capita. In 1964, 

 it was 12,032 million pounds or about 63 pounds per capita, and the cost of our 

 imported fish and fish products was pretty close to $600 million. Very pre- 

 liminary and very rough estimates by the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries in- 

 dicate that the fish stocks near our coasts are adequate in size to permit a 22 

 billion pound catch per year on the basis of maximum sustainable yield (or about 

 5 times our present production from them and twice our present annual use of 

 fish and fish products). 



Thus from both the standpoints of the global responsibilities we have as- 

 sumed (and from the domestic requirements we presently have) there would 

 appear to be some reason for a slightly augmented attention to the solution of 

 problems arising in the field of ocean fishery developments. 



Put bluntly, for the United States, 120,000 fishermen caught 4.5 billion 

 pounds of fish last year and we should arrange to catch about 10 billion pounds 

 of fish per year with about 50,000 fishermen-- and then go on to show the rest 

 of the world how to do the same thing. 



THE STRATEGIC CONSIDERATION 



The power structure among nations is continuously shifting and no prob- 

 lem gives us greater national and international concern than maintaining a na- 

 tional posture adequate to our needs for protecting what we call our open society 

 at home, and for projecting this open society and the human benefits we think 

 derive therefrom as broadly as possible in the rest of the world. Great debate 

 is also heard at home and abroad about this policy but it also has been for a long 

 while solid national policy in the United States and gives every indication of re- 

 maining so for the foreseable future. Control of the ocean lies at the very root 

 of our national posture and there is no hesitation in saying that if control of the 

 ocean is in danger of falling into unfriendly hands we will fight to retain it. We 

 always have and we always will. 



Militarily we are in an excellent position to defend control of the ocean 

 against all comers. The difficulty is that for the present time this military 

 power is neutralized for this purpose because our primary competitor in the 

 power struggle has sufficiently close to the same military competence to oblit- 

 erate large sectors of the human race, and neither of us desires, or dares, to 

 pull the strategic trigger and unleash this awesome military force. 



23 



