The extension by coastal nations of their national 
, jurisdiction to 200 nautical miles, coupled with the 
fears-Of a_ pending e_in_ many areas of 
the globe, has made the harvesting-of _fish_an_inter- 
national concern,leading to a “cod war” and a 
“tuna war,” for example. 
It is for this reason that Federal involvement in 
fishery research and management and the promotion 
of the domestic fishing industry has increased over 
the years. The Federal Government’s involvement in 
fisheries can be grouped into three categories: 
ee AGA 
e)Fishery research and information 
Fishery management and conservation 
Use of fishery resources and development of the 
domestic fishing industry 
Fisheries Research and Information 
The Federal Government conducts and sponsors 
a variety of basic research programs designed to add 
to an understanding of the biological and ecological 
principles that underlie fish and fisheries. 
The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) 
of the Department_of Commerce’s National Oceanic 
and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is the 
principal group concerned with fisheries and fishing 
in the marine environment. Complementing this ac- 
tivity, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service of the De- 
partment of the Interior has primary responsibility 
for freshwater species. 
The Fish and Wildlife Service’s Coastal and 
Anadromous Fisheries Program operates several fish- 
ery laboratories that perform basic biological re- 
search. The Atlantic Salmon Investigations Program, 
based in Orono, Maine, is involved in the restoration 
of Atlantic salmon to its native habitats. This pro- 
gram has demonstrated considerable success in the 
Connecticut River. 
Both the Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Fish- 
eries Center in Kearneysville, W. Va., and the NMFS 
National Fisheries Research Laboratory in Seattle, 
Wash., do research on fish diseases. The Seattle 
facility is also studying migration patterns among 
salmon. 
The Tunison Laboratory of Fish Nutrition at 
~Cortland, N. Y., has been investigating the dietary 
needs of Atlantic salmon. 
NMFS is responsible for monitoring and assessing 
fish stocks in the marine environment with special 
attention being paid to threatened and endangered 
species. Its Marine Monitoring, Assessment, and 
Prediction system (MARMAP) uses a variety of 
techniques to obtain information on the composi- 
tion, distribution, abundance, and availability of liv- 
ing marine resources. These results are often sup- 
plemented by assessment programs of the coastal 
States, some supported by Federal grants. 
The key components of the Federal marine fisher- 
ies research effort are the NMFS regional centers. 
These centers and associated laboratories, together 
with their academic counterparts in universities, con- 
stitute the fishery “establishment” in terms of sci- 
entific research, stock assessments, and environmental 
evaluations. 
These centers, together with all NOAA labora- 
tories, were evaluated in 1975 and 1976 by a team 
% 
N 
t I-12 
of peers under the sponsorship of the Ocean Sci- 
ences Board of the National Academy of Sciences. 
The teams found the NMES_laboratories to be per- 
forming sound scientific work; some of the installa- 
tions were judged to be excellent, whereas a few 
were found to be lacking in a number of areas.’® 
The laboratories, their 1975 budgets, and com- 
ments from the National Academy of Sciences evalu- 
ation follow: 
1. Northeast Fisheries Center, Woods Hole, Mass., 
and Narragansett, R.I., $2,731,000. Have a 
“prominent international reputation in fishery 
science.” 
2. Middle Atlantic Coastal Fisheries Center, Sandy 
Hook, N.J., Oxford, Md., and Milford, Conn., 
$3,534,000. Concentrate on ecosystem, re- 
source assessment, experimental biological and 
pathobiological research; researchers have some 
problems with the relative isolation of the instal- 
lations. 
3. Atlantic Estuarine Fisheries Center, Beaufort, 
N.C., $1,167,000. Concentrates on regional 
estuarine and fishery problems, particularly men- 
haden. 
4. Southeast Fisheries Center, Miami, Fla., Bay St. 
Louis and Pascagoula, Miss., $2,119,000. Per- 
form investigations of fisheries under pressure 
from high catch levels, as well as environmental 
research; found to have a not very high level 
of professionalism, including a low proportion of 
Ph. D. researchers. 
5. Gulf Coastal Fisheries Center (now part of the 
Southeast Center), Galveston and Port Aransas, 
Tex., and Panama City. Fla., $1,345,000. The 
Galveston laboratory works on commercial fish- 
ing problems, the other two on sport fishing. 
Some programs have low scientific productivity; 
shrimp culture work of high quality. 
6. Southwest Fisheries Center, La Jolla, Calif., and 
Honolulu, Hawaii, $3,938,000. The coastal divi- 
sion found to be a “center of excellence” with 
high scientific productivity; the newer ocean divi- 
%® Ocean Sciences Board, National Academy of Sciences. The 
Quality of NOAA’s Ocean Research and Development Program— 
An Evaluation. Washington, D.C., National Academy of Sciences, 
1977, 144 pp. 
