1134 
fashion. A favorable ocean climate regime in 1957-58 produced a good year 
class that revived the fishery to yield a high of 207 million pounds in 1958, but 
in the absence of any regulative machinery the remaining fish effort was large 
enough to drive the stock right on down again. 
Thus the largest U.S. flag fishery in terms of volume existing in 1937 had 
completely disappeared from the record of United States fish catch in 1967. 
As will be noted further on, scientific evidence is now adequate to provide means 
of relief and recovery, but the political machinery with which to put this new - 
knowledge into effect does not yet exist at either the State or Federal level. 
(2) Menhaden.—Menhaden occur in commercial quantities from the Canadian 
border to the Mexican border on the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts. They 
are not used for direct human consumption. They are used for producing fish 
meal and oil. There has been a fishery on them since colonial days which has: 
been of substantial size since the 1870’s. The fishery along the Atlantic coast, 
particularly in the middle region from New Jersey to North Carolina, developed 
steadily since World War I to be the largest volume fishery of that region. 
With the decline in the Pacific sardine fishery (with whose products it was in 
partial competition) the fishery grew sharply and since 1945 has been the: 
largest fishery of the United States in terms of volume of production. The 
fishery spread to the Gulf States on an important scale after World War II. 
It reached its peak of total U.S. production in 1961 with a yield of 2,290 million 
pounds (round weight). 
The menhaden fishery is now following the same down hill path as did that 
for the Pacific sardine. The annual production on the Atlantic coast has been 
falling off steadily during this decade and is still doing so. The incoming year 
classes ‘are smaller. The five year average (1959-63) of production on.the At- 
lantic coast was 1,406 million pounds and for the Gulf coast 927 million pounds. 
In 1967 Atlantic coast production was 466 million pounds, and Gulf production 
was 700 million pounds. Thus overall landings were off by more than 40% from 
1961 and Atlantic production is down even more proportionately. 1968 production, 
pariteularly from the Atiantic, will be down further, although Gulf production 
appears to be holding about even. 
The menhaden industry stands high among the fish meal industries of the 
world in application of science and technology to catching and processing of fish. 
Plants, vessels and gear are kept modernized and in good shape. Profits, until 
very recently, have been relatively good and capital availability has not been 
a substantial problem. The use of its product, fish meal, has been soaring in the 
United States during recent years. The problem of the industry has been almost 
solely a decrease in abundance of the resource upon which it depends. World 
market surpluses have been a temporary nuisance, decreasing earnings for a 
time in 1959-60, and again in 1966-67. but it was decreasing resource in the 
last down swing in world price that realiy hurt the past three years, because 
it raised cost per ton of production. 
The research situation on decline of menhaden is not as clear even as it was 
on California sardine. The several east coast and Gulf States involved do not 
have strong ocean research arms and the Federal Government has not had a 
sufficient menhaden research program to set the scientic record clear. 
Accordingly the cause of decline in menhaden cannot be stated clearly even 
as could have been that for the Pacific sardine. There may be adverse ocean 
climate conditions on the Atlantic. There may be an adverse effect on eggs and 
young from estuary pollution. But the best bet is that overfishing is to blame. 
It is of no consequence what the reason is. As with the Pacific sardine there 
is no regulatory machinery so that modern resource management methods 
could be applied if it was known for sure what was to be done. The individual 
states are not equipped to handle such a problem. The Atlantic States Marine 
Fisheries Commission and the Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission are 
not from the management viewpoint. The Atlantic Marine Fisheries Commission 
was recently given regulatory power over the menhaden fishery in the Atlantic 
area by its member States, but only on the grounds that management decisions 
be taken by unanimous agreement. So far Virginia has not agreed to suitable 
regulations to stop the decline in resource. The Federal Government does not 
have regulatory jurisdiction nor management responsibility, nor has it very 
avidly sought it because of the political implications. 
As a consequence the second major ocean fishery resource of the United States 
is headed down the spout with no relief in sight. The collapse of the Pacific 
Sardine resource set up interactions between conservationists and commercial. 
