NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHIC PROGRAM LEGISLATION 413 



States, and Russia is rapidly gaining a preponderant position in the use of the 

 ocean in the twin fields of merchant marine and fisheries, while the United 

 States is stagnant or slightly retrogressing in these fields. 



When this obvious Russian thrust is considered in relation to the strategic 

 considerations noted above it seems to me to give some impetus for the United 

 States to move somewhat more rapidly in its application of science and tech- 

 nology to its greater use of the sea. 



ECONOMIC CONSIDERATIONS 



Quite aside from these strategic and diplomatic considerations is the cold, hard 

 dollar value of the merchant marine and fisheries to our domestic economy. Two 

 short quotes from "Economic Benefits From Oceanographic Research" National 

 Academy of Sciences Publication 1228, are pertinent : 



(1) "We estimate that with present technology the total freight cost for U.S. 

 ocean trade will be $5 billion per year by 1975," and 



(2) "The value of the U.S. catch to the fishermen in 1962 was $381 million, 

 which corresponds to something over a billion dollars of the gross national prod- 

 uct, since the products approximately triple in value between the producers and 

 the final consumers. From the 50 percent of the total supply provided for by 

 imports, probably another half billion dollars was added to the gross national 

 product by processing and marketing within the United States." 



Since the writing of that report the demand for fish in the United States has 

 continued to increase and be met by imports. In 1964 imports of fish (in terms 

 of round weight) represented 62.4 percent of the total supply of fishery products 

 in the United States instead of the 57.7 percent of 1963 or the 50 percent esti- 

 mated by NASCO above. In 1963 the cost of these fish imports were $491 million. 

 While the cost statistics for 1964 are not yet finalized I am told by BCF that the 

 value of fish imports last year were close to $600 million. 



There is a widespread feeling here that the use of protein from the ocean in 

 the United States stays about level and does not compete with land-produced 

 protein In the United States. This simply is not true. The supply (market) of 

 fishery products to the United States (in round weight) was 5,641 million pounds 

 in 1948 and it has increased steadily each year to 12,032 million pounds in 1964 

 (C.A.S. No. 3800, April 1965, Department of the Interior). Thus the market for 

 fish protein in the United States over the past 18 years has more than doubled, 

 and it is pi'esently increasing at a considerably more rapid rate than is the 

 population. 



The point made here is that from a strictly economic viewpoint the merchant 

 marine and the fisheries are a not inconsequential part of the national economy. 

 When viewed in relation to the balance-of -payment problem they loom consider- 

 ably larger. It is pertinent to consider them in this light because freight hauled 

 in foreign bottoms results in dollar drain as does fish that is imported. 



The merchant marine can, of course, be built to whatever size is required by 

 the application of appropriate subsidies. EflBciency of maintenance, operation, 

 modernization, and replacement can be induced by appropriate terms of subsidy 

 contracts. In first-class, liner-type cargo vessels sailing established routes the 

 U.S. merchant marine is second only to that of the British in size, and second 

 to none in quality. The 15 leading U.S. lines run their 300 vessels on subsidy 

 contracts which require them to keep their fleets modern. As a result 80 per- 

 cent of all cargo vessels in the world capable of more than 20 knots fly the U.S. 

 flag (editorial. Life magazine, July 30, 1965) . 



A judicious use of the "carrot and stick" method, employing Government 

 money where risk is too high to warrant the private sector employing its funds, 

 is a normal way that the U.S. Government has sponsored growth in sections of 

 its economy it wanted to grow since colonial times, conservative views to the 

 contrary notwithstanding. 



While I am certain that research itself does not hold the whole answer to the 

 needed improvement of the merchant marine, still it is noted that NASCO ("Eco- 

 nomic Benefits" op. cit. ) estimates that $461 million spent on research in this field 

 will yield $958 million in benefits, which is not a bad cost-yield ratio. 



The case of fisheries is even more clear-cut. The Bureau of Commercial 

 Fisheries estimates, on the basis of as yet very incomplete exploratory fishery 

 activities, that the fish stocks in the immediate vicinity of the coasts of the 

 United States are capable of a sustained yield of about 22 billion pounds per year, 

 or nearly double the present rate of national consumption. 



