50 SEA GRANT COLLEGES 



Under these conditions the ability to control the ocean has changed subtly, 

 but in a major manner. With a neutralization of military sea power for this pur- 

 pose until the final Armageddon, there is the possibility that the occupation 

 through use of the ocean in an almost peaceful world could quickly be shifted to 

 its control in a less peaceful world, or that it could quietly and imperceptably 

 lead to an alteration of the power balance in the world by peaceful economic 

 means that could become an implement for our slow strangulation under condi- 

 tions short of major war. 



We are reminded through our own history that occupation and use have been 

 perfectly sound methods of getting control in a wide range of human affairs. The 

 whole water law of the arid West grew from occupation and use, and not from the 

 English common law or legislation in force in the humid eastern states. Wher- 

 ever settlers could survive by use and occupation of the land as they pushed 

 westward, settler's rights won control over native inhabitants and cattle ranch- 

 ers as well, although the latter ordinarily had the military power, and often the 

 law, on their side. 



The two domiinant civilian uses of the ocean remain the merchant marine 

 and the fisheries. The Russian merchant marine is new, modern, rapidly grow- 

 ing, and roughly equal to ours in carrying capacity; ours is composed mostly of 

 over-age obsolescent vessels and the industry is chronically in bad economic 

 condition. In 1922, Russia's fish catch was 483 thousand tons of which only 20% 

 came from the ocean; in 1964, its catch was 4,900 thousand tons (over twice the 

 size of ours, which has been static for 30 years) of which 81.6% came from the 

 ocean; their plan calls for a catch of 10 million tons in 1970, and they have been 

 on or slightly ahead of plan goal in accomplishment at sea for several years. 



The Russian ability for sea-use in fisheries feeds back into the diplomatic 

 aspects of helping the developing world also. Their sea-fisheries are serving 

 most useful diplomatic objectives in Cuba, Guinea, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Li- 

 beria, Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, Egypt, Yemen, Pakis- 

 tan, India and Ceylon, to name a few places. 



Accordingly, from the standpoint of purely domestic objectives there are 

 reasons for developing our sea fisheries; from the standpoint of international 

 objectives our reasons for developing global ocean fish production and use, 

 whether through our own activities or those of the international agencies, are 

 major. 



THE NATURE OF FISHERY DEVELOPMENT 



The first problem in fishery development is to locate aggregations of a 

 kind of fish for which there is a market, that can be caught at a cheap enough 

 price so that the market will accept them while the fishermen make a good living 

 doing so, and that are steady enough in abundance and location to support a regu- 

 lar occupation and industry. 



The second problem in fishery development is to develop or adapt gear, 

 vessels, and search and location equipment suitable to catching the fish steadily 

 at a low enough cost per ton of production so that the market will accept them, 

 and to stabilizing the fish so that when they reach the market they will be ac- 

 ceptable for sale or for processing for sale. 



The third problem in fishery development arises from the highly perish- 

 able nature of fish. Since the market ordinarily lies far from the point of catch- 

 ing, methods of processing must be developed to keep the product in acceptable 

 form until it reaches the consumer and, by so doing, not raise the cost so high 

 that the product will not be accepted by the market. 



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