NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHIC PROGRAM LEGISLATION 407 



The theoretical basis of all of this has been pretty well worked out. For every 

 fish stock under every ocean condition there is a point of maximum sustainable 

 productivity beyond which more fishing will produce a less weight of fish, and 

 before which also less weight of fish will be produced by that stock of fish. 



The nations agreed, in the 1958 Convention on Fishing and the Conservation of 

 the Living Resources of the High Seas, to require their fishermen to conserve high 

 seas resources, and defined conservation as being "the aggregate of the measures 

 rendering xiossible the optimum sustainable yield from those resources so as to 

 secure a maximum supply of food and other marine products." They were unable 

 to agree on any other standards such as maximizing the economic yield. 



While there are other factors preventing the implementation of this high resolve 

 adequately and in timely fashion, ignorance of the relationships between the 

 ocean, the fish, and the fishery so as to be able to determine when an overfishing 

 problem is developing and what to do about it when it does develop is certainly 

 the most important factor. 



No such problem has been solved except when ignorance of these factors has 

 been dispelled. This takes much expensive research and to date the nations have 

 not been prepared to provide adequate funds to conduct it. 



While I strongly favor the enactment of H.R. 5175 I wish to make it plain that 

 a study of the legal problems of the management, use, and control of the natural 

 resources of the ocean and the seabed will not be adequate to secure their wise 

 management, use, and control. There require also to be studied the resource, 

 political, diplomatic, sociological, and economic aspects of these problems as 

 well. H.R. 5175 will provide a most useful beginning on this subject ; Senate 

 Joint Resolution 29 is also needed. The bodies of law at the State, Federal, and 

 International level will require to be studied together before even the legal 

 aspects of the problem will become clear. 



I am very much in hopes that this Congres will act favorably on H.R. 5175 

 (legal studies), Senate Joint Resolution 29 (resource studies). Senate Joint 

 Resolution 1079 (Continental Shelf research), and some such legislation as 

 S. 944 (organization of ocean activity at the Federal level). With these tools at 

 hand we may be able to move forward more surefootedly in developing the use 

 of the ocean for our own economy and at the same time improve the general lot 

 of man by providing improved access to the great resources of inner space. 



Statement of W. M. Chapman, Van Camp Sea Food Co. 



My name is W. M. Chapmiaii. I am direetoi-, Division of Resources, Van Camp 

 Sea Food Co., 840 Van Camp Street, Long Beach, Calif. Our business is the 

 harvesting, processing, distribution, and marketing of the living resources of 

 the sea on a worldwide basis. Our interest in the ocean is as deep and wide as 

 the ocean. This morning I intend, however to speak about the national ocean 

 policy and means with which to implement it, on a much broader basis than our 

 specific interests. 



THE NATURE OF THE PKOCLEM 



What we are engaged in with these hearings is finding the means for opening 

 up a new environment for the occupation and use of our Nation and mankind. 

 This is not a new kind of endeavor for the people of this Nation, nor for mankind 

 generally, but it is useful to recall a few examples in order to evaluate the nature 

 of the problem and the normal way in which we have treated problems of this 

 nature before. 



Our ancestors who landed on the eastern seaboard came to an environment 

 not markedly different than the one they had left in Western Europe. It was 

 a forested, well-watered country of the nature which their weapons, tools, ideas, 

 and institutions had been fashioned to fit. This people moved slowly but per- 

 sistently and successfully through the forests, felling trees, building cabins, mak- 

 ing rail fences, digging shallow wells, or getting water from the numerous springs 

 and permanent streams, pushing the natives westward, and fully and success- 

 fully settling, occupying, and using the environment. 



It needs to be noted that at every stage of this more than 200-year ijeriod of 

 settlement activity government was a major partner in all moves, financing the 

 Baltimore and Ohio Canal, the Erie Canal, other avenues of transportation, 

 exploration, surveying, and the necessary warfare, among other things. 



When this settlement movement came out of the forested area onto the arid 

 Great Plains the people encountered a new environment in which their weapons. 



