1142 
than it is worth. The earning in this fleet is good enough to attract and keep: 
both young and old men. One of the skippers of a large new vessel is 27, and 
many are in their 30’s. 
This fleet is presently encountering one old problem and one new one, either 
one of which can cause serious perturbations in its economics, and both of which 
could cause serious damage. This has not dampened enthusiasm for new 
construction, which will increase the fishing effort of the existing fleet by a 
quarter. 
The old problem is jurisdiction by coastal states over fishing in the high seas. 
adjacent thereto. Hcuador, Peru and Chile claim the adjacent high seas to a 
minimum distance of 200 nautical miles as their sovereign territorial waters. 
All three have attempted to enforce these extravagent claims from time to time 
in the past, and Heuador is making a particularly vigorous effort to do so just 
now. There is not much the tuna fishermen can do about this. They fish on the 
high seas not in accordance with rights pertaining to them but in the exercise 
of rights pertaining to their sovereign, the United States Government. Fishermen 
are frequently the objects of international law but only sovereigns are its subject. 
The Department of State has tussled with this problem off Latin America now for 
twenty years, with varying success. It is renewing its efforts presently, and the 
issue is in its hands. The Congress in 1954 enacted legislation shifting much of 
the economic burden of this battle over national rights in the high seas from 
the back of the fishermen to that of the Federal Government, where it belonged 
in the first place. The Congress in 1968 has broadly strengthened this economic 
protection, and stimulated the Department of State to strengthen the diplomatic 
part of the protection. 
The new problem is conservation regulation. Yellowfin tuna stocks in the 
eastern Pacific will support an annual yield on a sustainable basis of only, 180-200 
million pounds per year. The available fishing effort is able to catch this much 
in six months or less. The skipjack population in the same area is large enough 
to support a much larger annual fishery than now exists on a sustainable basis 
(it yielded 260 million pounds in 1967). The Inter-American Tropical Tuna 
Commission has these probelms within its purview. Regulation of the yellowfin 
catch began in 1966 rather too late in the season to be very effective. In 1967, 
yellowfin fishing (aside from incidental catch) was closed to vessels leaving 
port after 24 June. The economic effect on the fleet was masked by the excep- 
tional availability of skipjack in 1967. 
The fleet is reasonably dependent upon fishing both species for economic 
success. Skipjack are subject to wide annual fluctuations in availability from 
natural causes not associated with the fishery. They are normally more available 
in the second half of the year. Two big years of skipjack availability have never 
yet occurred together, and a bad skipjack year is not unknown after a good one. 
The fleet has not yet, until this year, experienced a bad skipjack year with 
yellowfin regulation. 1968 is one. This is causing a substantial shift of larger 
and newer tuna clippers from the eastern Pacific to the Atiantic in the last half 
of 1968. This will create many problems. The industry has had enough experience 
with such problems that it will very likely survive these. 
There is scope in the United States tuna market for substantial increased 
production by U.S. flag vessels. Imported frozen tuna now supply a little more 
than half the market. The albacore part of these imports cannot be caught off 
the United States nor by U.S. tuna clippers, but the bigger half (for light meat 
tuna) can be caught in the tropics by U.S. flag clippers. Accordingly if U.S. flag’ 
tuna vessels can deliver tuna to U.S. canners of equal price and quality with 
that available from imports there is scope for the fieet to increase in size by 
another quarter or half under present market conditions. There is no reason to 
believe that the United States tuna market will not continue to grow. 
Perhaps the key thing to watch in the tuna fishery is whether the United 
States Government is able, or willing, to protect its right for its tuna vessels to 
fish on the high seas. If it is, the fleet appears to be able and willing to expand 
on substantially a world-wide basis. In any event this is a large, strong, expanding 
part of the U.S. flag fishing industry. 
(12) Shrimp.—The fishery for shrimp parallels in some ways that of tuna. 
The United States market for shrimp has grown steadily. The fishery is inter- 
national. It has been bothered by molestation in fishing on the high seas and 
by imports. It has continued to grow and prosper. It is the most valuable crop 
to 11.9. fishermen, as tuna is the most valuable fishery product at the processed 
level in the United States. 
