cost a lot. It costs even more to screen natural 

 products at random by traditional methods. The 

 major concern of drug companies is the marginal 

 benefit or incremental return on investment. Drug 

 companies have many more research opportunities 

 than could possibly be undertaken due to a 

 limitation in manpower and capital. There is a vast 

 array of marine biochemical agents having potent 

 biological activity. Many of these substances are 

 candidates for potentially useful therapeutic 

 agents, but these agents are not more intriguing 

 than chemical and pharmacological researches with 

 compounds obtained from land. 



In order to effect a methodical evaluation of 

 the sea as a source of new and useful bioactive 

 substances, it is recommended that: 



—A single, coordinated program that is National 

 and international in scope be established. 



—A systems management approach be utilized to 

 eliminate duplication of effort and funding. 



—The program provide for such elements as: 



a. Inventory of presently known bioactive sub- 

 stances. 



b. Examination of those factors which relate to 

 the ecology of marine organisms and their 

 pharmacology. 



c. Determination of present pharmacological 

 evaluation problems. 



d. Institution of a national file for information 

 storage and retrieval. 



e. Development of inexpensive screening meth- 

 ods. 



f. Provision of regional facilities for collecting, 

 storing, and distributing bioactive material 

 to universities, research institutes, and indus- 

 try. 



C. Marine Mammals 



Marine manmial harvesting activities by the 

 United States are confined almost entirely to the 

 annual harvest of fur seals in the Pribilof Island 

 area. The plight of the whale populations as a 

 whole appears so hopeless that we anticipate no 

 reason for United States participation in pelagic 

 whaling operations in the foreseeable future, 

 though there is some hope that the gray whale 

 population may reach a level at which a consider- 

 able harvest could be taken. 



VM. PRESENT LEVEL AND STRUCTURE OF 

 FEDERAL GOVERNMENT ACTIVITY IN 

 EXPLORATION, DEVELOPMENT, AND 

 REGULATION OF LIVING MARINE RE- 

 SOURCES 



Many Federal Government agencies are in- 

 volved in the acquisition of scientific information 

 that is pertinent to or involves exploration, de- 

 velopment, and regulation of the living resources 

 of the sea. Some agencies or departments, such as 

 ESS A and Navy, conduct extensive oceanic sur- 

 veys and collect environmental information that 

 can be synthesized and employed for making 

 decisions concerning exploratory or actual fishing 

 activities. Their inputs are also useful in the 

 regulation of fisheries. These and other agencies 

 provide financial support to individuals, universi- 

 ties, or other government agencies to carry out 

 resource assessment activities. This is particularly 

 true of the Atomic Energy Commission, the Navy, 

 the National Science Foundation, and NASA. 



The major Federal responsibility for conducting 

 explorations to deUneate latent aquatic resources 

 and for their development and regulation in 

 commercial usage is lodged in the United States 

 Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Commercial 

 Fisheries. For this reason, discussions on the 

 structure and level of government activity in the 

 fields of government development and regulation 

 will be confined primarily to this agency's 

 activities. 



A. Administrative Structure 



The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service involves two 

 major bureaus, the Bureau of Conmiercial Fish- 

 eries (BCF) and the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and 

 Wildlife (BSFW). The two bureaus are under the 

 supervision of a commissioner and each has its 

 own director. 



The activities of BCF are organized for admin- 

 istrative purposes in six divisions. The activities of 

 each division are further divided by work blocks 

 which define branch activities. The field execution 

 of the division and branch activities of BCF is 

 undertaken by regional biological and tech- 

 nological laboratories or various service groups. 

 The administration of the field work is divided by 

 major geographic regions. In each region a director 

 and assistant director coordinate, develop plans, 



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