broad extension program involving all forms of 

 educational media including personal contact. 



D. Political and Biological Constraints 



Regardless of the state of knowledge, the 

 proficiency of State administrators and legislators, 

 and the declared intent of State regulatory actions, 

 individual State programs are frequently prevented 

 from attaining their goals by political and biolog- 

 ical constraints. 



Local special interest groups may possess suffi- 

 cient political power to prevent enactment of 

 measures beneficial to the general public, or to 

 gain legislation prejudicial to such interests. Even 

 in the absence of such influences, States are often 

 reticent to impose justified restrictive conditions 

 upon their citizens when the benefit of such 

 measures may be realized outside their boundaries. 



We have not found a single instance in the 

 history of the Atlantic States, Gulf States, and 

 Pacific Marine Fisheries Commissions where two 

 or more States have initiated and implemented 

 coordinated measures for the efficient manage- 

 ment of migratory marine species. There is an 

 equally glaring absence of any concerted effort to 

 expand the harvesting of underutilized resources. 



Although the three marine fisheries compacts 

 provide advice and recommendations to the mem- 

 ber States and to the Federal Government, they 

 were not intended to regulate fisheries in their 

 respective regions. Regulation was left to the 

 individual States, although two compacts were 

 amended to permit regulation by the Marine 

 Fisheries Commissions, if member States so chose. 



velopment and the concentration of manpower 

 and financial resources on National fisheries mis- 

 sions. Studies of fishing management and regula- 

 tory concepts should be undertaken and new 

 management techniques instituted calling for in- 

 creased coordination among the States and a 

 greater Federal role in determining National fish- 

 eries poUcies and priorities. 



The panel recommends that the Federal author- 

 ity over U.S. marine and anadromous fishery 

 activities be combined in a single bureau of one 

 agency. The agency should be authorized to 

 establish National priorities and fishery policies 

 for the development and utilization of migratory 

 marine species for commercial and recreational 

 purposes, in cooperation with other Federal 

 agencies. States, and interstate agencies. It should 

 encourage cooperative activities by States for 

 regulation and conservation of such species, spon- 

 sor research on the impact of institutional barriers 

 inhibiting the efficient development of our com- 

 mercial fisheries, and should encourage enactment 

 of improved State and Federal laws relating to the 

 regulation and conservation of such fisheries. 



The measures proposed should strengthen the 

 U.S. fishing industry and improve the fisheries 

 programs of the various States. Under certain 

 circumstances, however, these measures may be 

 inadequate to meet the development and manage- 

 ment needs of certain fisheries. Under the condi- 

 tions stated below, the panel recommends that the 

 Federal Government be given authority by the 

 Congress to assume regulatory jurisdiction of 

 endangered fisheries. 



Such action should be taken when: 



E. The Need for New Organizational Arrange- 

 ments 



The present roles played by the Federal Gov- 

 ernment and the Marine Fisheries Commissions are 

 inadequate to meet the needs of the U.S. fishing 

 industries. 



New organizational arrangements are required if 

 fisheries management is to be attacked on species 

 or regional bases as part of comprehensive resource 

 development programs. The panel has reviewed 

 several proposed organizational arrangements for 

 the U.S. commercial and sport fisheries and has 

 concluded that the role of the Federal Govern- 

 ment should be reoriented toward resource de- 



— It can be demonstrated that a particular stock of 

 marine or anadromous fish migrates between the 

 waters of one State and those of another, or 

 between territorial waters and the contiguous zone 

 or high seas 



—The stock enters into interstate or international 

 commerce 



—Sound biological evidence demonstrates that the 

 stock has been significantly reduced or endangered 

 by acts of man 



—The State or States within whose waters these 

 conditions exist have not taken effective remedial 

 action. 



VII-50 



