1126 
The consumption of canned tuna (as with shrimp) continues to grow at a more 
rapid rate than the population. In terms of canned weight the supply of tuna to 
the United States was 140 million pounds in 1948, 277 million pounds in 1957, 
and 454 million pounds in 1967. The percentage of this supplied by imports was 
7.57% in 1948—49.4% in 1957—and 45.2% in 1967 (having been 52.8% in 1966, 
but reduced in 1967 by extraordinarily heavy landings by U.S. flag vessels). The 
actual catch by U.S. flag vessels has held reasonably level for the past twenty 
years, having been 329 million pounds in 1948, 304 million pounds in 1957—332 
million pounds in 1966—but going up sharply to 427 million pounds in 1967. In 
the past two years approximately $30 million worth of new long-range tuna 
clippers has been added to the fleet, mostly from private financing, and the yield 
from this larger U.S. flag tuna fleet is beginning to be felt. 
As with shrimp, there are not enough tuna off the coast of the United States to 
fill the market. As a matter of fact most of the production by U.S. flag vessels 
(as noted in more detail below) is caught south of the United States off western 
Latin America and West Africa (chiefly the former). There are supplies avail- 
able off Northeast United States, in the Atlantic, but so far they have not proven 
large enough, or stable enough in occurrence, to support much of a regular 
commercial fisheries. 
In consequence the U.S. tuna producers have steadily increased their imports 
of frozen tuna for canning for twenty years, buying tuna from foreign catches 
in the tropical world ocean everywhere, not only the Pacific, but the Atlantic 
and Indian Ocean, and establishing production bases outside the continental 
United States to advance this purpose. They use well more than one-third of all 
the tuna caught in the world. The value of tuna imports in 1967 was approxi- 
mately $100 million, with a little more than one-half (about $55 million) being 
in the frozen form for canning in the United States. The value of all tuna imports 
was a little less than one-fifth the total value of all fishery imports in'1967. 
(ad) Frozen groundfish, fillets and steaks 
The supply of frozen ground fish, fillets, and steaks to the United States was 
256 million pounds in 1948, 358 million pounds in 1957, and 541 million pounds in 
1967. This equates roughly, in round weight, to 845 million pounds in 1948, 1,181 
million pounds in 1957; and 1,900 million pounds in 1967. As with shrimp and 
tuna, the United States market for these commodities increase at a more rapid 
rate than the population increase, and there is no reason to believe this will not 
continue to be the case for a long time. 
These commodities provide the raw material for fish portions, fish sandwiches, 
fish sticks, fish chips, and a number of other new products which continue to 
proliferate and attract new demand throughout the United States in sharp 
contrast to the condition of a generation ago when these sorts of fish were rarely 
attainable very far inland from the sea-coast or Great Lakes. The popularitly 
of fish in these new frozen forms continues to increase at a more rapid rate than 
population as quality at the customer level, means of distribution, and familiarity 
with the products, in the interior in particular, continues to increase. This can be 
expected to continue into the foreseable future. 
The supply of these fishery commodities to the United States in 1967 was about 
523 million pounds in terms of round weight. The imports were 369 million 
pounds, or about 70% of the total. The value of the imports are hard to calculate 
from existing published figures because the products come in in different forms, 
but largely in semi-processed forms as frozen slabs or block of dressed fish. Per- 
haps a valuation of $80 million for the actual imports in 1967 would be in reach 
of the proper value at this level. 
The situation of the groundfish industry from which these products is re- 
ceived is complex, and will be treated in greater detail below. At this point it is 
sufficient to say that there are large supplies of fish suitable for these products 
in United States coastal waters. Some of these (particularly in the Northwest 
Atlantic) are fully utilized, or in some cases, overfished by both United States 
and foreign fishermen. Some of these (particularly in Alaska and down along 
the Pacifie coast) are fairly fully utilized by domestic and foreign fishermen. 
Some of these (particularly along the Pacific coast and off Alaska, and to some 
extent in the Gulf of Mexico), are substantially underutilized. 
The trawler fleet of United States flag vessels which produces this sort of fish 
has been the part of the U.S. flag fishing fleet most seriously influenced by 
inattention, invasion of market by foreign fish with U.S. Government assistance, 
and by the subsidization of foreign competitive fleets. 
