739 
Sound biological evidence demonstrates that the stock has been significantly 
reduced or endangered by acts of man, and 
The State or States within whose waters these conditions exist have not taken 
effective remedial action. (Report, p. 97.) 
THE ECONOMIC CONDITION OF FISHERIES 
Comprehensive measures of the economic condition of U.S. fisheries are not 
readily available because of the deplorable inadequacy of meaningful statistics.” 
The poor health of many segments of the industry, however, is clearly evident 
in obsolete vessels, high age of fishermen, and low returns to eapital and labor. 
“The average age of the U.S. fishing vessel in 1966 was 20.3 years. Only four 
new vessels have been added to the Boston offshore trawler fleet in the past 16 
years, and the average Pacific coast halibut vessel was built 36 years ago.... One 
major effect of all (the) forces working against improved efficiency in the har- 
vesting of fish has been a reduction in the average output per U.S. fisherman 
which, since 1964, has fallen below the 1957-59 average. Conversely, for the U.S. 
economy in general, the average output per worker increased over 30 percent from 
1957 to 1967 and, in agriculture—an industry whose products compete with fish 
in the food market—there has been a 67 percent increase.” ® 
COMMON PROPERTY AS A CAUSE OF ILL HEALTH 
Many factors contribute to the poor health of the fish catching industry. But 
the most important one is that U.S. fisheries are managed as common property 
natural resources. Under this system, access to the fishery is open to anyone who 
cares to invest in the necessary equipment. There are no exclusive rights of 
property and no way of preventing the application of excessive amounts of capital 
and labor. 
Asa fishery develops, it tends to produce surplus returns to the fishermen; i.e., 
returns above and beyond those that are necessary to keep the fishermen in the 
industry. These surplus returns, or extra profits, are shared by all participants 
and they attract more fishermen until all such returns are dissipated. At this 
point, total revenues to the industry will just cover (or, in many cases, actually 
be less than) total costs, and no economic rent will be produced. 
In almost all other resource industries, such conditions have never existed or 
have long since been abandoned. Exclusive rights of property are fundamental to 
most American enterprise, and they permit the entrepreneur to employ only as 
much capital and labor as will produce the maximum net economic return. With 
exclusive rights of property, the industries operate at the point where marginal 
costs and revenues are equal, rather than total costs and revenues. But under the 
conditions of common property, such as exist for fisheries, the use of wasteful, and 
redundant amounts of capital and labor becomes inevitable.* ; 
Several economic studies indicate the magnitude of this waste. A study of the 
Sacramento River salmon fishery has shown that $3.3 million worth of annual 
catch could be taken with $300,000 worth of effort under rational management.°® 
For the Pacific salmon fisheries as a whole, Crutchfield and Pontecorvo have dem- 
onstrated that the same total catch and same gross revenue could be taken with 
about $50 million less in annual costs of vessels and labor.® In the past 25 years, 
the catch of Alaska salmon has actually fallen by 34%, and yet the number of 
fishermen has increased by more than 110%." “The present annual catch of Georges 
Bank haddock could be taken with 30 percent fewer vessels than now used. This 
would mean that total revenues would remain the same but that total costs would 
2“The deficiencies (in statistics) make it impossible at the present time to assess the 
economic health of any segment of the U.S. fishing industry or to forecast the economie 
results of alternative programs without detailed ad hoc efforts to develop the necessary 
factual background, case by case.” Report of Panel on Marine Resources, p. VII-47..The 
Commission’s recommendations on the vital need for improved statistical data are particu- 
larly urgent and important. 
2 Marine Science Affairs, The Third Report of the President to the Congress on Marine 
Resources and Engineering Development (Washington: GPO, 1969), p. 94. 
«See Report of the Panel on Marine Resources, pp. VII-63-69. 
= Donald H. Fry, Jr., ‘Potential Profits in the California Salmon Fishery,” California 
Fish and Game, XLVIII, No. 4 (October, 1962), pp. 256-67. 
® James Crutchfield and Giulio Pontecorvo, The Pacific Salmon Fisheries: A Study of 
Trrational Conservation (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press for Resources for the Future, 
Inc., 1969), p. 174._ ¢ ; 
* Resources for the Future, Inc., Annual Report 1968 (Washington: RFF, 1968), p. 98 
{derived from Crutchfield and Pontecorvo, op. cit.) i 
