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high-flying aircraft, electronically equipped vessels of its own of all sizes, and 
other modern methods of intelligence gathering, there is not much practical other 
help that it can ever expect to get from its flag fishing feet in the overseas 
area. If better and more numerous domestic fishing fleets are developed this 
might well produce home useful warning service in coastal and nearby offshore 
waters, but hardly enough to warrant extra expense for that purpose not capable 
of intrinsic justification on the basis of improving this element of the United 
States economy. 
The United States clearly has more fish and shellfish in its nearshore waters 
than it can use in the reasonably near future. It will never catch all the fish 
cand shell fish it wants from these resources, because it wants a good deal of many 
Kinds that do not occur off its coast, or do not occur there in the volume it wants. 
On the other hand it has such riches of living resources near its coast that it 
-can have a surplus of them to export to earn foreign exchange sufficient to more 
than pay for what it wants to import. This is not the case with either Japan 
‘or Russia. 
The United States has a strong, varied and dynamic fish trade. By this term 
is meant those in the chain above the fishermen and fishing vessel owner, such 
as the processor, distributor, broker, marketer, etc. An examination of the 
foregoing material and the state of the art does not indicate any serious problem 
in this aspect of the fish business requiring elaborate governmental attention to 
bolster its economic situation. There are internal instabilities in it but those are 
primarily attributable to changing food habits, shifting raw material bases and 
slowness to change. Overall it is growing at a good rate and prospering. It has 
available to it, with little or no effective tariff or other barrier to trade, the 
ocean resources of the world. Its total market in the United States is the most 
lucrative, largest, and most rapidly growing and varied market for a fish and 
shellfish in the world. It has shown itself to be innovative and progressive in 
developing new products to fill new market needs, and in developing merchan- 
dizing methods to peddle the products. 
In saying the above it is assumed that present Congressional activity directed 
toward bringing fish plant and product inspection practices in line with similar 
standards in the poultry, dairy, and meat industries will emerge soon in practical 
legislation in this field being adopted. Fish and shellfish, being particularly 
delicate raw material, need such standards and inspection programs particularly 
and such legislation is another logical step in securing the safety, wholesomeness, 
and stability of the nation’s fish trade. 
In the international field the United States fish trade does not seem to require 
any assistance from the government other than would flow normally from the 
government tidying up its own activities to attend better to its own interests in 
this field, some of which have been mentioned above and others of which will 
be treated below. AS a matter of fact the shoe may well be on the other foot, 
in that the government might be able to obtain considerable benefit from the 
activities of the United States fish trade in various foreign areas if it chose to 
integrate those activities toward its general objectives in this field somewhat more 
closely. 
A considerable amount of emphasis has been given in the past by the Bureau of 
Commercial Fisheries to ‘treating problems of the domestic fish trade as defined 
herein. This has been chiefly a result of its representatives being more vocal and 
ubiquitous than those of the fishing business, sensu strictu. There is no need for 
it to have any attention from the United States Government more than is given 
normally to other domestic manufacturing and merchandizing fields. 
For instance, the marketing assistance which the Bureau of Commercial Fish- 
eries now gives in this field is not of any considerable consequence to the trade 
as a whole and could very well be tapered off to permit transfer of funding 
and personnel to problems more directly associated with the development and 
managment of fishery resources and the extractive phases of the industry 
they support. 
It is in the field of the United States flag fishing industry, and primarily that 
portion of it operating in United States coastal waters, where the domestic 
problems of the fish business lie and it is to this field that United States remedial 
measures affecting the fish business should be shifted, concentrated, broadened 
and strengthened. By concentrating on developing its domestic fisheries on its 
continental shelf and slope it can strengthen its domestic economy, broaden its 
readily avaliable food base, reduce its foreign exchange loss, and broaden its 
expertise in the use of the ocean in manners that will improve its posture among 
the nations and its ability to help others do the same. 
