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Latin American countries claiming wide areas of the high seas as territorial sea 
and attempting to prevent U.S. flag vessel fishing off those coasts, or charging 
large fees for the privilege. From 1950 on, imports of tuna from Japan caused 
material economic distress for ten years that not only prevented growth in the 
fleet but caused some retraction. The Carruthers pack shaper reduced the labor 
cost of canning tuna so sharply after the end of World War II that American 
canners gained a good advantage on Japanese canners who still use hand labor 
for canning tuna. The use of the Puretice Power Blend and synthetic webbing, 
beginning in 1959, revolutionized the economics of the fishing end of the 
industry by 1961, and put it again in a competitive position with imported fish. 
Both branches have so far survived Japanese competition and are strong today. 
It is not yet certain that the battle for access to resources on the high seas has 
yet been won by the fishing end. Nevertheless large new investments are being 
made by owners in new vessels. 
From about 1955 on the paths of the canners and boat owners in the tuna 
industry began to part, with the canners placing increasing emphasis on imported 
frozen tuna, establishing bases for collecting this in various parts of the world, 
and stimulating the development of tuna fisheries by South Koreans, Taiwanese, 
Eeuadorans, etc., as well as by Japanese, on subtantially world-wide basis. By 
1953 tuna canning by Southern California packers (mostly on imported fish) was 
well under way in Puerto Rico and this has continued to grow in a solid manner. 
Some U.S. flag vessels followed the canners to Puerto Rico immediately until in 
1967 these landed about 100 million pounds, and will exceed that in 1968. For 
some odd reason the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries did not, until this year, 
include these Puerto Rico landings by U.S. flag vessels in the figures given in 
Tables 2 and 3, which are therefore low. They are now, for the first time this year 
included in the tables of total supply of tuna to the United States. 
By 1958 U.S. flag vessels were exploring the West African coast out of Puerto 
Rico, as far south as Angola. The growth of this branch of the fishery has been 
desultory until in 1967 four vessels made successful trips from there. Hight ves- 
sels are there as this is written in August, 1968 and it is likely that more will 
follow before this year is out. Vessels out of Puerto Rico have also explored 
the late summer tuna fishing as far north as New England and in 1963 the catches 
for that region Were upwards of 14 million pounds, although they have not been 
maintained at that level. It is likely that there will be renewed interest there 
this year. 
This fishery for tropical tunas (yellowfin and skipjack) has developed into the 
one real distant water fishery that the United States has. It ranges comfortably 
and normally throughout the whole range of yellowfin and skipjack from Southern 
California to Northern Chile and has explored the Atlantic from Angola to New 
England. The purse seine technique it has evolved is far the most efficient way of 
catching tuna that any nation has in ocean regions where there is a sharp, 
shallow thermocline underlain by an oxygen deficiency zone. It is fully competi- 
tive economically when fishing in such regions, with any other tuna fishermen 
in the world, and only Japan catches more tuna than does the United States. 
The fleet was quite thoroughly modernized after the purse seine revolution in 
1960 put it on its feet economically again. It is presently undergoing further 
renovation and a very sharp expansion. Fifteen new vessels are under construc- 
tion or on order and it is likely that this will increase to twenty before this 
expansion boom is over. The whole fleet is capable of freezing its catch at once 
at sea and carrying its frozen cargo in undeteriorated condition for weeks, or 
even months. The new vessels entering the fleet are all substantially larger, and 
with greater range, than the fleet average just ten years ago. Five of the new 
vessels are giants capable of freezing and carrying more than 900 tons. Most are 
over the 500 ton range. Such vessels are equipped to stay at sea for two or three 
months. 
There is one easy way to tell whether a fishery is prospering or not. If it is 
the fishermen build new boats, if it is not they do not. The individual tuna 
clippers that have recently been built, or are on order, cost $1.5 to $1.8 million 
each. Thus the total new investment in the tuna fleet now going on will approxi- 
mate $30 million. This is all being undertaken by individual fishermen or groups 
thereof, and canners are involved not in ownership but backing of partial costs 
in several instances to provide credit for the owners. Some of the vessels have 
applied for and got Fishing Vessel subsidies from the Bureau of Commercial 
Fisheries, but more than half have not, on the grounds that it is more trouble 
