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released by the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries show that fishery 

 products from a catch of over 17 billion pounds were consumed in the 

 United States in 1!)()<S. This compares to a consumption of just over 

 714 billion pounds one decade ago in 1958. 



Imports made up o7 percent of the total consumption in 11)58. In 

 19()8, 76 percent was imported. The United States is now sixth behind 

 Peru, Japan, mainland China, Russia, and Norway in total landings 

 of fishery products. 



However, it should be mentioned that the value of our fishery land- 

 ings is second only to that of Japan's. These statistics have not been 

 entirely responsible for the recent expressions of concern about our 

 fishing industry. The appearance of large foreign fishing fleets near 

 our coasts has dramatized the issue. 



The Commission report explains the causes behind our relative de- 

 cline as a fishing Nation and proposes that we adopt as a national goal 

 the rehabilitation of the harvesting sector of our clomestic commercial 

 fisheries. The Commission recommends that special emphasis be placed 

 on increasing production by United States flag vessels from latent fish- 

 ery resources adjacent to our own coasts. These recommendations are, 

 in my opinion, sound and deserving of support. 



The Commission sets forth a comprehensive program for strengthen- 

 ing our domestic fisheries. The most important parts of this program 

 are: 



(1) Legal and political reforms to rationalize the present confused 

 and archaic jurisdictional system of local. State, and Federal laws 

 for managing fisheries. 



(2) More emphasis by our management agencies upon the economic 

 performance and perhaps somewhat less emphasis upon the biological 

 performance of specific fisheries. 



(3) Initiation of studies leading to mechanism for regulating entry 

 of gear into certain fisheries. 



(4) An enlarged engineering development program to advance our 

 technological capability to harvest and market fishery resources. 



(5) Scientific research and exploration to locate and determine the 

 quantity and quality of the fish resources adjacent to our coasts as well 

 as to improve our understanding of the productivity of these resources. 



These recommendations for a domestic program are well designed to 

 foster a more favorable climate for private development of the harvest- 

 ing sector of the U.S. fishing industry. 



A new, strong, and independent government agency dedicated to 

 ocean affairs would provide an effective administrative structure for 

 implementing the domestic fisheries program recommended by the 

 Commission. Although we are making substantial progress on some 

 parts of this program under our present administrative structure — 

 and I do not mean to belittle in any way the activities of the dedicated 

 and capable administrators, technicians, and scientists working on 

 fisheries problems — I do believe our fisheries program would benefit 

 greatly from being part of an environment which provides the type 

 of long-range engineering research and development support needed 

 to make significant technological advances in our modern industrial 

 society. Adequate advanced engineering support and program coor- 

 dination is difficult under present arrangements. 



