64 MARINE SCIENCE 
APPENDIX 3—CHAPMAN STATEMENT 
CALIFORNIA KISH CANNERS ASSOCIATION, INC, 
Terminal Island, Calif., January 31, 1961. 
Hon. HENRY LABOUISSE, 
Administrator, International Cooperation Administration, 
Washington, D.C. 
My Dear Mr. LABouisse: We are not certain whether the following material 
should be addressed to you, to the Secretary of State, to the Secretary of the 
Interior, or perhaps elsewhere in the U.S. Government, because it deals with 
topics cutting across lines of responsibilities and interests. Accordingly, we 
have addressed copies of it to other officers in the Government as noted in the 
terminal paragraph. 
Nigeria at present uses about 260,000 to 320,000 tons of fish per year, ex- 
pressed in short tons of fresh fish equivalents. Expressed in the same equivalents 
about 160,000 tons of this amount (valued at U.S. $25 million) are imported 
from countries around the North Atlantic (chiefly Norway and Iceland) in the 
form of dried stockfish. About another 50,000 tons in the same equivalents (and 
also in dried form) are imported from the Chad-Chari fisheries of the nearby 
Republic of Chad and the fisheries of the Upper Niger as far away as the Re- 
public of Mali. About 50,000 tons of the remainder is produced internally in 
Nigeria. All but 3,700 tons of this is produced by canoe fisheries of the most 
primitive sorts operating in the rivers, creeks, lagoons and very nearby sea (in 
calm weather.) It is processed, transported and marketed by the most primi- 
tive and unhygienic means. The 3,700 tons of fish (which out of the whole lot 
of perhaps 300,000 tons a year is all that would meet American or most dietary 
standards) is produced by 11 tiny trawlers and mostly consumed fresh in Lagos, 
the capital city. 
Quite aside from the expenditure of foreign exchange which the above brings 
about, the product is almost all of very low standard when it reaches the con- 
sumer not at all cheap by any standards, and is far from sufficient for the die- 
tary needs of the upwards of 35 million Nigerian people. 
Protein deficiency is common in the diets of the peoples of the rain forest and 
nearby wooded savannah areas of both western and eastern regions (as well as 
the southern Cameroons). It is particularly acute among the very young and 
in the form of Kwashiorkor is a major contributor to the abnormally high in- 
fant mortality rates in these areas of Nigeria as well as similar areas of other 
countries in tropical West and Central Africa. The poorer classes of the urban 
and peri-urban areas not only of these regions but of the federal ‘territory and 
northern region of Nigeria suffer from chronic protein deficiency which does not 
produce the striking effects of Kwashiorkor but is nevertheless important in con- 
tributing to the general physical debility of these peoples and their lowered re- 
sistance to the many other diseases endemic in tropical Africa. 
In view of the difficulty of raising livestock in the area infested by the tsetse 
fly major dependence for protein in the diet must be placed upon fish both now 
and in the immediate future. This suits the dietary desires of the people. 
If 300,000 short tons of fresh fish equivalent weight be taken as the present an- 
hual consumption of fish in Nigeria a total need of 350,000 tons per year would 
not appear to be unreasonable. With population increasing at the rate it now 
is, and has been for some years, an estimate of 400,000 tons in these equivalents 
as the Nigerian need for 1970 is certainly conservative. 
While it is highly doubtful that the inland waters of Nigeria could produce on 
a sustainable basis anything like the volume of fish which Nigeria requires, it is 
just as certain that the high seas adjacent to the country could easily produce 
all of this fish on a sustainable basis and leave over a comfortable fee of 
readily salable products which would earn foreign exchange. 
The primitive fishing industry of Nigeria is quite incompetent ever to meet 
these needs by its own initiative. The Government of Nigeria has asked the 
Special Fund of the United Nations and the Bxpanded Technical Assistance Pro- 
gram of the Food and Agriculture Organization for specific fishery aid projects. 
These projects are good enough in themselves but fall far short of being able to 
meet Nigeria’s fishery needs in any reasonable length of time. 
The Federal Fishery Service, with the agreement of the Ministry of Hconomic 
Development, does have a project which would lead to the tapping of these great 
offshore fishery resources by Nigeria in a reasonable length of time. This is 
called the Tin-Can Island scheme, and very closely resembles the fish harbor 
