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U.S. waters (thread herring, anchovy and various other fish in the Gulf of 
Mexico and Southeastern states; anchovy and other fish off southern California ). 
19. The lack of growth in total production of fish and shellfish by U.S. flag 
vessels for the past 35 years is a statistical non-sequitur covering over an ex- 
ceedingly complex and dynamic industry whose parts have varied greatly in 
productivity and from a variety of causes. Fifteen of the major fisheries are 
reviewed in some detail. 
20. While the fish trade, composed of processors, distributors and brokers have 
thrived and require no further governmental attention than other manufacturing 
and marketing industries, the highly diverse fishing end of the business requires 
the same sort of preferential treatment given other primary producers (such as 
petroleum and farmers) in order to thrive. It has not had this and this is why 
it has not thrived. A number of specific problems are described and remedies 
recommended. 
21. In general the production of food and other commodities from living 
aquatic resources, especially from the ocean, has not been supported by the 
United States Government. This is the reason why United States production of 
food from the sea has slipped from second to sixth place in the world since 
the end of World War II, at the same time consumption of fish by the United 
States has been increased sharply, and large resources off the continental 
United States have gone unused. : 
CHAPTER I—U.S. OCEAN POLICY AND ITS FLAG FISHERIES 
Policy of the United States in respect of ocean fishing by vessels wearing its 
flag must be an integral part of the general policy and strategy of the United 
States, and particularly that for the total use of the ocean. 
Organic materials provide the sinews of the society—its food and much of its 
clothing, fiber, energy, drugs, shelter, and a great deal more. Organic matter 
comes trom living things. They are used from three sources: things that grow 
on land (agriculture and forestry) ; things that have grown on the land and in 
the sea and have been fossilized in deposits (petroleum, natural gas, coal, oil shale 
and tar sand) ; and the living resources of the sea. 
The living resources of the land and sea are renewable resources which, if 
properly husbanded and harvested, will provide crops indefinitely, and if properly 
bred and nurtured can bring forward crops larger and more varied than nature 
originally provided. 
Selective breeding, fertilization and husbandry have increased crops from 
particular areas and resources on land prodigeously in recent generations, and 
the main barrier to further increase is the amount of solar energy that falls 
on the land and can be stored by plants in the alchemy of their growth. This 
process of selective breeding, fertilization and husbandry has barely begun with 
the living resources of the sea, which are naturally more abundant than those 
of the land because more solar energy strikes the sea than does the land, living 
matter thrives in the sea to depths of tens of meters instead of tens of inches 
as it does on land, and the fertilizers it requires are much more abundant and 
all pervassive in the sea than on the land. 
Because of its sophistication, high rate of economic activity, and affluence 
United States society uses all of these organic materials from all of these sources 
at rate levels substantially higher than does any other society, and there is no 
indication that this rate of increased use will do anything but continue to increase 
for the foreseeable future. The disproportionately high use by United States 
society. in relation to the rest of the world, of energy and chemicals from fossil 
fuels and of food, fiber, wool and drugs from agricuiture and forestry is well 
known. It is not so well realized that the United States, with about 6% of the 
world’s population, uses about 18% of the total world production of fish and 
shellfish. that its per capita use of these products at about 70 pounds per year 
is one of the highest of any country in the world, that this high absolute and per 
capita use of ocean food products has been increasing sharply and steadily since 
the end of World War II, and gives every sign of continuing to do so. 
It is obvious that United States policy must promote access by its society to 
all of these sources of organics in the abundance, stability of supply, and cheap- 
ness of cost that will best strengthen the posture of the nation. It has long been 
bipartisan policy of the United States to increase the abundance, stability of 
supply, and cheapness of cost of these commodities to other societies in the world, 
well recognizing that social unrest and its final outburst as war, can most prac- 
tically be restrained by ease of access, lack of imbalance, and cheapness of cost 
of food, fibers, fuel, shelter, and drugs 
