21 



manufacturing plants in the United States. The mixture of manufac- 

 turing types in the estuarine zone is the same as the national composi- 

 tion with only minor exceptions, such as the concentration of the ap- 

 parel manufacturing industry in the Middle Atlantic region, particu- 

 larly in the New York area. Distribution of manufacturing types 

 among the biophysical regions shows regional differences related to 

 historical development as well as raw material and market availability. 



Over half of all plants in the coastal counties and one-fifth of all 

 manufacturing plants in the United States are located in the Middle 

 Atlantic biophysical region, which was the historical center of the 

 Nation's industrial growth and is still one of the major market areas. 

 The Pacific Southwest is the major industrial center of the Pacific 

 coast and is developed as intensively as the Middle Atlantic region. 

 Some industrial development in other regions tends to follow historical 

 or present raw-material availability. Leather-product plants are 

 clustered in the North Atlantic region, and lumber manufacturing 

 plants are most plentiful in the Pacific Northwest. Food processing 

 plants, however, follow closely the distribution of poj>ulation. 



While much of the industrial development located in coastal coun- 

 ties affects the estuarine zone indirectly through use of adjacent land, 

 some of the water-using industries have an impact on the estuarine zone 

 far beyond their numbers. The paper, chemical, petroleum, and pri- 

 mary metals industries are the major water users among manufactur- 

 ing establishments and are distributed universally throughout the 

 estuarine zone. 



USE OF THE ESTUARINE ZONE 



Many of the uses catalogued in this report occur only because the 

 historical growth of the country makes the estuarine zone the place 

 where the people and the industry are. Only commercial navigation 

 and commercial fishing are uses which are primarily associated with 

 the estuarine zone rather than other parts of man's environment. Uses 

 such as water supply, waste disposal, and recreation are associated 

 with civilization wherever it exists; in the estuarine zone they may 

 have different values, different emphasis, or different impact on the 

 biophysical environment. 



The great unique use of the estuarine zone, which makes it of pri- 

 mary importance to man and his civilization, is its place in the life 

 cycle of many animals which aid in converting solar energy into more 

 usable forms. While no life form can be singled out as irreplaceable, 

 the kinds of life which need the estuarine zone to survive represent 

 essential links in the energy conversion chain upon which man de- 

 pends for survival. Many of the human uses of the estuarine zone 

 depend directly or indirectly on the existence of the estuarine zone as 

 a healthy habitat. 



Fishing 



The important fish species are those sought by either the sports fish- 

 erman or the commercial fisherman. Practically all of the sports fish 

 species are dependent upon the estuarine zone for one or more phases 

 of their life development, and approximately 65 percent of all com- 

 mercial fish species are estuarine-dependent. 



In 1967 U.S. fishermen received $438 million for approximately 4.06 

 billion pounds of commercial fish and shellfish. It has been estimated 



