745 
cne order of the percentage excess amount, then you would provide 
licenses initially for all 150, and as some of them were removed or 
as some of them move away and do other things, the licenses would be 
reduced until you had 100, and at this point you would maintain that 
at the approprate number, similar in effect to the taxicabs in New 
York City. 
Mr. Downrnce. Would you impose any territorial limits on the 
license ? 
Dr. Curisty. This becomes very difficult. If there is a stock that is 
used internationally, then imposing of license limitations by the United 
States would not make much sense. 
The Commission has recommendations on this element in the Panel 
Report on the International Resources and Uses of the Sea. They point 
out, for example, that the same amount of cod and haddock in the 
North Atlantic that are taken today could be taken by far fewer vessels 
with savings in the order of $50 million to $100: million a year. 
Their recommendation for this is to establish national quotas and 
then, given the fact that a country has a particular fixed quota, it 
could employ as much or as little labor as it sees fit, This would facili- 
tate the imposition of these kinds of controls. 
Mr. Downtne. Do you advocate licenses by species or general overall 
licenses ? 
Dr. Curistry. This becomes very difficult. It becomes difficult because 
of the interrelationships of the species in many cases and because of 
the different kinds of vessels that are operating on these. 
think it would have to be done in each case according to the particu- 
lar situation that pertains. 
Mr. Downtne. Thank you very much. 
I have one question of Mr. Wheaton, Mr. Chairman. I thought he 
made an excellent statement, too. 
Mr. Lennon. I want to come back if I can to Mr. Wheaton. 
Dr. Christy, what you are saying in substance is that in your judg- 
ment the only way to substantially rehabilitate the harvesting segment 
of the United States fishermen is to restrict excess commercial fishing 
in order to improve the net economic return of those involved. 
That being so, and it does appear that something of that nature will 
ultimately have to be done, how did you react after the Congress had 
made possible a ship construction subsidy for fishermen, and ‘all of the 
people who utilized this program were new commercial fishermen, as 
you know, some time ago, which just spread the problem ? 
I think you will agree with that. In retrospect, many of us find our- 
selves wondering why the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries did not go 
to those individuals and companies who have been in the commercial 
fishery field for many years and encourage them to rehabilitate their 
fishing fleets, and thereby increase their net economic return. Instead 
this made it possible for many newcomers who had never been involved 
in commercial fishing to be the ones to utilize the ship construction 
subsidy for commercial fishermen. 
The same thing is going on now, according to our best information. 
You are a consultant to the National Council on Marine Resources 
and Engineering Development, which is a council that was created by 
act of Congress at the time the Commission was created to make this 
study on the consideration of this report. 
