68 MARINE SCIENCE 
APPENDIX 4—CHAPMAN STATEMENT 
CALIFORNIA FisH CANNERS ASSOCIATION, INC., 
Terminal Island, Calif., January 81, 1961. 
Hon. G. MENNEN WILLIAMS, 
Assistant Secretary for African Affairs, 
Department of State, Washington, D.C. 
My Dear Mr. Witi1aMs: This letter is concerned with the part played by 
fisheries in the nutrition and health of the peoples of tropical Africa, par- 
ticularly west Africa, the moves being made presently by Russia and her satel- 
lites to capitalize on this situation to the international political benefit of the 
Communist world, and what moves the United States might make in this field 
which would enhance the economic and nutritional position of these several peo- 
ples and by so doing contribute to political stability in the area. 
In the belt of jungle and nearby wooded savannah that stretches across most 
of central tropical Africa various diseases transmitted by the tsetse fly render 
the raising of livestock largely impractical. This is also the belt of tropical 
Africa in which the human population is most dense. The upshot of these two 
factors is that human population in the area is substantially dependent upon 
fish (mostly dried and smoked because of both the general poverty of the con- 
sumers and of the hot, humid climate of the area) for the animal protein part 
of their diet. Although substantial quantities of dried fish is imported from 
the Northern Hemisphere and elsewhere, protein deficiency is a serious problem 
throughout the area and with most age classes, and in younger children is re- 
sponsible in large measure for the abnormally high mortality rates resulting 
from the deficiency disease known as Kwashiorkor. 
It is one of the incongruities of nature that the high seas off west Africa, 
and adjacent to this belt of jungle and wooded savannah, is one of the most 
productive of the ocean areas of the world in precisely the sorts of fish relished 
by the people ashore who need them. These are the pelagic fishes—the herring- 
like fishes of the genus Sardinella and Ethmalosa, and the tunas (yellowfin 
and skipjack primarily). 
The pelagic fishes of the high seas are almost as unavailable to the shore- 
side fishermen of these coasts as if they were on the moon because of the primi- 
tive nature of the coastal fishermen, their gear, vessels, and means of preserving 
and marketing their catches. They are unable to go to sea to follow the fish; 
they must await the poorly understood vagaries of the ocean currents bring- 
ing the fish in to the beach within reach of their canoes. 
An example in point is provided by Nigeria. A recent estimate by the United 
Nations is that the inhabitants of Nigeria (somewhat over 35 million strong) 
eat at present the equivalent in fresh fish of about 260,000 to 320,000 tons of 
fish per year and are still—as are all other inhabitants of the area—short of 
animal protein in their diet and subject to the physical debilities that arise 
therefrom. 
Of this present use of fish the equivalent of about 160,000 tons fresh weight 
(but in the dried form) is imported from the Northern Hemisphere at a cost 
of about US$25 million per year (which is a drain upon foreign exchange). 
Perhaps another 50,000 tons in fresh weight equivalents is imported (again 
in the dried form) from the fisheries of Lade Chad and the Chari River in the 
nearby Republic of Chad, and from the upper Niger as far away as the Re 
public of Mali. The remaining 50,000-odd tons of fish used currently in Nigeria 
is produced by her own fishermen from internal waters. 
Of this 50,000 tons of domestically produced fish most is produced by canoe 
fisheries of the most primitive nature, dried and smoked in the most primitive 
manner, and mostly walked to market through jungle roads and paths in the 
most primitive manner, where it is marketed under horribly unhygienic con- 
ditions after being subject to high spoilage brought about by the hot, humid 
climate and major depredations by the omnipresent beetle larvae. It is esti- 
mated, for instance, that of the product of the Chad-Chari fishery which is 
dried and shipped to southern Nigeria only between 15 and 25 percent of 
the original weight reaches the consumer in a condition fit for human con- 
sumption. 
Of all the sources of fish in the Nigerian diet only 3,700-odd tons (or about 
1144 percent) are produced by modern vessels from the sea under modern con- 
ditions of preservation and hygiene. These are landed by 11 small trawlers 
operating out of Lagos without benefit of modern port facilities. 
