NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHIC PROGRAM—1965 713 
who said: 
But, since the sea is infinite and of unmeasured depth, many 
things «7e hidden, and of these dark things none that is mor- 
tal can tell; for small are the understanding and the strength of 
men. ‘the briny sea feeds net, I think, fewer herds nor lesser 
tribes than earth, mother of many. But whether the tale of off- 
spring be debatable between them both, or whether one excels the 
other, the gods know certainly; but we must make our reckoning by 
our human wits. 
Indeed we must, and one of the liveliest arguments among oceanographers and 
marine biologists is precisely the question nut by Oppian around 180 AD: does 
production in the sea equal or excel that on land? At least we hope that our 
understanding and our wit have been sharpened since Oppian's day, and we may not 
be too far from some sort of answer to this basic question of the productivity 
of the sea. In the meanwhile, populer writers and TV script artists oversimplify 
the problems and raise hopes whose fulfillment we cannot guarantee. 
Consider, for example, the following statement from a recent magazine 
article: 
"--- the sardine population dwindled, and it never recovered, be- 
cause by the time the environment improved in 1957, the feeding 
grounds has been pre-empted by a kind of anchovy that has a limited 
market as a food fish in the United States. Had the anchovies been 
fished intensively during the lean year, Cannery Row might still be 
thriving." 
There are so many oversimplifications in this statement that it is hard to 
know where to begin. However, it should first be pointed out that at the peak 
of the California sardine fishery - around 1936-39 - the greater part of the 
catch was not used for human food but for the production of fish meal for live- 
stock food and oil for industrial purposes. The same thing is happening to the 
herring fisheries of Europe. The peak production of California sardines has now 
equalled or surpassed by the menhaden fishery of the South Atlantic and Gulf 
states, which in 1961 accounted for about 5% of the entire fish catch of the 
United States and Alaska. Menhaden are used exclusively for fish meal and it is 
obvious that menhaden have replaced sardines in the economy, It is doubtful, 
should the sardines return this month, that Cannery Row could ever catch up. 
The State of California controls the percentages of whole fish that may be used 
for reduction purposes, and at this tive virtually the entire sardine -- and 
anchovy-catch is canned for food. 1961 was the lowest sardine pack in history. 
Of course, some people might say that Cannery Row is thriving again -- as a 
tourist trap. 
The most serious misstatement is perhaps the idea that had we been as fond 
of anchovies as of sardines as food, the fish canneries would have been able to 
continue at something near their peak by simply switching fish and labels on the 
cans. The idea that anchovies are replacing sardines is at best a hypothesis, 
and I am not aware that anyone who has studied the situation would be willing to 
Say that this was an instantaneous replacement of fish stocks, like changing the 
guard at Buckingham Palace. It will be interesting to see what happens if the 
menhaden population collapses -- what will happen then to the cammery rows 
of the Atlantic and Gulf coast communities? When the herring disappeared frum the 
