444 
same the present fish catch would supply 10 
percent of the protein needs of the world’s popu- 
lation. In fact, it may supply more, being more 
highly favored by those with lower standards of 
living whose per capita protein intake is less than 
average. An estimate generally accepted as con- 
servative puts the annual catch which could be 
sustained indefinitely without depleting the stock 
at something like 200 million metric tons of fish 
a year, or about five times the present take. More 
optimistic estimates range to many times this 
value. All agree, however, that vastly more infor- 
mation must be obtained on the ecology of fish 
populations and their distribution than is now 
available and that much more efficient manage- 
ment techniques must be developed and inter- 
national agreements reached if even the lowest 
of these estimates of the potential food harvest of 
the oceans is to be realized. 
The motive for making the necessary effort 
soon gains much of its strength from two consid- 
erations. One is that many of the fish presently 
most valued are already showing signs of over- 
fishing, and the other is that the major alternative, 
intensified agriculture, seems promising mainly 
in land areas of rich nations while many starving 
nations border the seas which, in principle at 
least, are accessible to all. 
The United States is a member of eight active 
international fisheries commissions in which a total 
of 20 other countries also participate. These com- 
missions and their dates of establishment are: 
Pacific halibut, 1924; Pacific salmon, 1937; interna- 
tional whaling, 1948; inter-american tropical tuna, 
1949; Northwest Atlantic fisheries, 1949; interna- 
tional North Pacific fisheries, 1952; Great Lake 
fisheries, 1955; North Pacific fur seal, 1957. As 
world fishing develops, the catch seems to be dou- 
bling every 12 years. More fisheries are becoming 
mature and require close supervision. Under con- 
sideration for control are the yellowfin tuna of the 
eastern tropical Pacific and certain other fishery 
stocks. Both for the economic benefit of the fisher- 
men who see their livelihoods at risk and for the 
benefit of the populations who need what the seas 
can offer, learning how to find and exploit alter- 
nate species as well as how to increase the safe yield 
from present species is of vital importance. 
The Bureau of Commercial Fisheries is tenta- 
tively planning to spend approximately $173 
million over the next 10 years on programs which 
11 
NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHIC PROGRAM—1965 
will contribute directly to better management of 
fish resources in the sea. Although approximately 
$69 million of this is to be devoted to the study of 
species which are now entirely or predominantly 
the province of the American fisherman, even 
those are bound up in the broad ecology of the 
oceans of which man is becoming the chief pred- 
ator and for which he must be prepared to be 
accountable as competition for the food resources 
in the world ocean stiffens. Another $185 million 
will go to basic research, strengthening oceano- 
graphic science while laying a much needed foun- 
dation for more effective applied work on fish re- 
sources management. This is in acknowledgment 
of the importance of knowledge of ocean circula- 
tion and vertical transport to prediction of the 
distribution of fish populations and general oce- 
anic ecology. 
The Smithsonian Institution plans to spend 
about $25 million over the decade in describing 
organisms—their abundance, their life cycles, 
and their distribution in the ocean. The Smith- 
sonian effort will contribute significantly to our 
understanding of both beneficial and harmful 
biological processes in the ocean. Although the 
Smithsonian may charter vessels for brief periods 
of time for work in remote areas, most of its col- 
lecting will be performed on ocean-going vessels 
of other agencies. 
The health of the fish and other life which in- 
habit the ocean may be affected by poisons intro- 
duced by man in various ways; man himself may 
then be affected when he consumes contaminated 
seafood. He may also be affected by these poisons 
directly. Since the testing of nuclear weapons 
began after the war, the people of the already un- 
easy world have become increasingly concerned 
about the radioactive contamination of their 
environment. Disposal of low-level radioactive 
wastes by AEC in both the Atlantic and the Pac- 
ific Oceans since 1946, and by the British in the 
Irish Sea, has made it necessary to study ulti- 
mate consequences as the packages in which they 
are contained corrode through over the years 
and even the sluggish circulation in the ocean 
abysses eventually disperses them widely over 
the world. Nuclear reactors power a large number 
of submarines and an increasing number of sur- 
face ships, and are being developed to provide 
both electric power and propulsion for satellites 
and space vehicles. Appraisal of operational and 
accidental hazards that these devices represent 
