Table 8 

 NUMBER OF U.S. FISHERMEN BY REGION 



Source: U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of 

 Commercial Fisheries. 



Preliminary. 



United States landings from the area were 

 valued ex-vessel at $68 million in 1964 and $75 

 million in 1965. 



b. Mid- and South Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico 



Bullis (1968) has made estimates of the latent 

 yields of fish and shellfish that might be expected 

 from the Gulf of Mexico and the southeast 

 Atlantic coast of the United States (Table 11). The 

 Gulf of Mexico is beUeved to have one of the 

 largest latent fisheries potentials of any area 

 adjacent to the United States; BulUs foresees 

 possible annual production in the order of 21.021 

 million pounds. Potential yield from the middle 

 and south Atlantic seaboard of the United States is 

 estimated at about 1 1 .434 million pounds. Bullis's 

 figures, which also cover current levels of produc- 

 tion by U.S. fishermen, suggest that the present 

 use rate of fisheries resources off the middle and 

 southeast seaboard of the United States and in the 

 Gulf of Mexico is a small fraction of the potential. 

 U.S. landings in 1964 and 1965 were valued at 

 $177 million and $206 milUon. 



2. Potential Production 



Alverson (1968), Ahlstrom (1968), Bullis 

 (1968), and Edwards (1968) provide the most 

 current pubUshed estimates of the potential re- 

 sources adjacent to various geographic sections of 

 the United States. 



a. New England Edwards (1968) estimated that 

 total standing stock of demersal fishes adjacent to 

 New England states was in the vicinity of 1 1 ,877 x 

 10 pounds and that 95 per cent of this standing 

 stock is made up of 27 species (Table 9). The 

 1963-65 yield from these fishes was approximately 

 2,630 X 10* pounds, but the United States catch 

 constituted only about 30 per cent of the total. It 

 does not appear that demersal fish catches can be 

 greatly increased in this area. In addition to the 

 demersal fishes of the region, Edwards also sug- 

 gested that the standing stock of squids is in the 

 order of 700 million pounds and that there may be 

 50 million pounds of lobsters on the shelf adjacent 

 to New England. Estimates of the potential yield 

 for latent species are given in Table 10. 



c. Pacific Northwest (Oregon to Alaska) Pacific 

 Northwest catches are dominated, in poundage 

 and value, by several high-valued species already 

 exploited rather fully: salmon, halibut, crabs, and 

 oysters. Demersal species, particularly in the Gulf 

 of Alaska and the Bering Sea are very lightly fished 

 by United States vessels. 



Alverson (1968) provides authoritative data on 

 fisheries potential of the Pacific Northwest. His 

 estimates of the standing stocks and maximum 

 sustainable yield for the 10 most important 

 demersal fishes found in this region are shown in 

 Tables 12 and 13. Current production of demersals 

 from this region by all nations is in the order of 

 three billion pounds. However, most of this total is 

 harvested by foreign fishermen (mainly Russian 

 and Japanese) in the Bering Sea and the Gulf of 

 Alaska. U.S. production of demersal fishes in the 

 Pacific Northwest accounted for only about 150 

 million pounds of the total. In addition to 

 demersal fish, Alverson sees a potential catch of 

 shrimp from the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea of 

 200 to 300 milUon pounds. The potential for crabs 

 (king, tanner, and Dungeness) appears to be on the 

 order of 250 million pounds. King and Dungeness 



VII-21 



