worked out between the interested parties so as to protect and preserve 

 the resource. Because these agreements are usually in response to a 

 downturn in catch, that segment of the industry is victimized be- 

 fore it can begin to recover. 



• Many developing nations are anxious to reserve any resource to which 

 they can now lay claim for development at their own pace. They 

 should be willing to agree to aspects of control and management which 

 respect their future. 



• The time is ripe for reaching agreement among nations for control 

 of fishing. 



• In order to elicit agreements among many nations, the basis of re- 

 source management control would have to be biologically rather than 

 politically determined. 



• With the fishing resource assured over a period of time sufficient to 

 attract investment, and our national share of the catch reasonably 

 predictable, U.S. private enterprise should be depended upon to harv- 

 est it profitably. 



The six steps by which a plan for an increased share of U.S. market 

 may be developed are to determine (1 ) the present productivity of the 

 fishing areas of interest to the United States, (2) their potential under 

 ideal conservation conditions, (3) the necessary critical conservation meth- 

 ods, (4) the agencies which should bear the responsibility, (5) the in- 

 creased supply of fish which would be available to the domestic market, 

 and (6) a market penetration schedule. 



We recommend that NOAA be assigned the lead agency role for de- 

 veloping such a plan, verifying its economic and operational feasibility, 

 and— with Department of State collaboration — for proceeding with its im- 

 plementation. 



The time for us to act is now because foreign competition and the 

 threat to fish resources are now recognized as a national problem rather 

 than a local one. Like the land when the frontier began to disappear, the 

 oceans too now need management in the common interest of those who 

 would harvest its bounty today and be custodian for generations to come. 



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