There is no National organization representing 
all the interests of the processing, distributing, and 
marketing sections of the industry, although most 
firms are members of either the National Fisheries 
Institute or the National Canners Association, or 
occasionally both. A number of local trade organi- 
zations are in the larger fisheries, such as salmon, 
tuna, shrimp, menhaden and lobster. 
Vessel owners group together in local associa- 
tions, mostly on a port or regional level, organized 
under the Fishermen’s Cooperative Act of 1934. 
Functions of such associations vary greatly from 
marketing to the provision of such benefits as 
discounts through group purchasing. Several at- 
tempts have been made to create a National vessel 
owners association, but without success. 
2. Recent Trends 
As recently as 1960 only one U.S. firm engaged 
in the fish trade with as much as $100 million of 
business per year; a few had $50 million per year; 
the majority had $10 million or less per year. 
Around 1960 food firms began diversifying 
through purchase or amalgamation with fish firms. 
Today principal firms in the fish trade have sales 
between $0.5 and $1.5 biliion a year.** These 
developments are giving the U.S. fishing industry a 
new character—more adequate access to capital; 
National and international scale thinking; mer- 
chandising rather than production orientation; and 
better management. 
Large U.S. fish firms customarily have avoided 
ownership of fishing vessels, although the practice 
has differed in various sections of the industry. All 
segments, however, extend credit to fishermen for 
seasonal operations, vessel acquisition, new vessel 
construction, and other purposes. The changing 
character of the industry is diminishing this 
practice. 
Many large firms now beginning to predominate 
in the fish trade have extensive holdings in foreign 
operations. They buy raw material to their quality 
standards from that source having the optimum 
combination of cost and reliability. However, 
recent history does not indicate a strong trend to 
25 Examples: Castle and Cooke acquired Bumble Bee, 
Inc.; H.J. Heinz bought StarKist Foods, Inc.; Consoli- 
dated Foods bought Booth Fisheries; Ralston Purina 
bought Van Camp Sea Food Company. 
V-38 
total integration of the fishing industry from the 
ocean to the supermarket. 
The trend to emphasize products having Na- 
tional distribution is increasing. The fish products 
involved must be obtainable in large volume from 
a sound resource base and also must have broad 
customer acceptance. 
D. Problems and Recommendations 
The Marine Resources Act sets among its 
objectives the “rehabilitation of our commercial 
fisheries.” The panel believes that in attempting to 
achieve this objective the Nation should build on 
strength. However, the panel also believes that 
steps taken to solve critical problems can yield 
substantial gains for weaker segments of the 
industry, enabling them to take a larger portion of 
the available catch off U.S. shores. 
1. Access to Fisheries Resources 
Fish are treated in both National and inter- 
national law as a common property resource. The 
law of the industry has been: ‘‘First come, first 
served.” Action taken to moderate the ill effects 
of this situation has often been aimed toward 
maintaining the position of large numbers of 
individual fishermen by restricting fishing tech- 
niques. Consequently, excessive, uneconomical 
harvesting effort now is applied to many species. 
A more rational approach to achieving reason- 
able competition in taking common-property re- 
sources is recommended in the Resources Panel 
report. In that report an effort to apply the 
limited entry principle to those U.S. fisheries 
subject to potential depletion is recommended. 
Policies should be adopted to restrict fishing units 
to a certain number, each of maximum efficiency. 
Controlling entry of fishing vessels should permit 
more effective management of the resource. Over 
the long term, production costs should be reduced 
and earning power improved. This panel concurs in 
such recommendations. Mechanisms through 
which shares of the resource could be assigned 
include license fees and bidding for rights. 
Recommendation: 
A quota or limited entry principle should be pilot 
tested in selected fisheries. The U.S. Government 
should provide both opportunities and incentives 
for States and regions to carry out these tests. 
