2. Fish Production Versus U.S. Consumption 
Profound changes have occurred since World 
War II in the utilization of the world’s fishery- 
resources. World catch has tripled from 43 billion 
pounds to 125 billion pounds,”” yet catch by the 
U.S. industry has remained relatively stable, be- 
tween 4 and 6 billion pounds (round weight) 
despite U.S. consumption nearly tripling in the 
same period. Fishing activities by many nations, 
especially Japan and Russia, have been extended 
to U.S. coasts. Total foreign catch in waters fished 
by U.S. fishermen now far exceeds the U.S. catch 
from these waters and is expected to increase 
considerably. 
Imports to meet the rising U.S. demand have 
increased dramatically from 26 per cent of total 
supply in 1960 to 71 per cent in 1967. Yet, the 
U.S. coasts are adjacent to some of the most 
productive and abundant fishery resources in the 
world and the U.S. market is the largest and most 
lucrative in the world. Expectations are that U.S. 
consumption will grow steadily, reaching 21 bil- 
lion pounds by 1985 and 31 billion pounds by the 
year 2000.?? 
Statistics on fisheries supply available to domes- 
tic fishermen are not generally well known because 
the research required for reasonable stock assess- 
ment has been done on only a few species. 
Conservative estimates indicate that fishery re- 
sources off the U.S. coast are adequate to support 
a total annual sustainable yield (available to all 
fishermen) of about 30 billion pounds, including 
marketable species not being fished now. Depend- 
ing on the definition of marketable species, some 
estimate this total to be as high as 45 billion 
pounds. 
The production and consumption statistics for 
the domestic fishing industry are compiled in 
Table 3, covering the period back to 1945. 
Summarizing, the picture is as follows: annual 
production of four to six billion pounds, static for 
nearly 30 years; market for about 14 billion 
pounds, growing at a much more rapid rate than 
population; and resources available for a total 
catch of at least 30 billion pounds per year. The 
question then arises as to how the domestic fishery 
22 Thid. 
23 Department of the Interior, ““Commercial Fisheries 
Federal Aid to States,’ Circular No. 286, Washington, 
D.C., February 1968, p. 8. 
V-36 
can begin to take advantage of the growing 
demand by fully utilizing the wealth of available 
resources. 
3. Foreign Trade 
In 1967 the United States imported $708 
million of fish and exported $84 million, for a net 
dollar outflow of $626 million.** Seventy-six per 
cent by value of the fish products imported are 
food fish, most of which comes from Canada, 
Japan, Mexico, and South America. 
Many USS. processors depend heavily on foreign 
sources of fish. In fact, fish processing in the 
United States increased the import product value 
by $430 million last year. Thus any analysis of the 
foreign trade problem should consider the value 
added to the food product within the United 
States as well as the price paid to foreign fisher- 
men. 
The U.S. fishing industry is expanding foreign- 
based operations. Some reasons for this include 
diversification, better profits than at home in 
many cases, and encouragement by foreign govern- 
ments. 
C. Nature of the Industry 
1. Components of the Industry 
The industry consists of several segments, in- 
cluding fishermen, vessel owners, wholesale dealers 
and brokers, and processors. The fishermen crew 
the vessel. Particularly when small vessels are 
involved, the captain may also be the boat owner. 
With larger and more expensive vessels the owners 
usually will not be the fishermen. The processors 
usually do not own their own fleet and are not 
tending to become boat owners. The wholesalers 
and brokers handle a great deal of imported fish 
and often add some processing, functioning as 
distributors and merchandisers. In general, the 
fishing industry is substantially fragmented into 
many fishing, processing, and distributing firms in 
port cities with a number of merchandising firms 
in the interior as well. Processing companies often 
extend credit to selected fishermen to purchase 
gear, construct new vessels, or renovate old ones. 
24 Office of Program Planning, Bureau of Commercial 
Fisheries. 
