Figure 2. Departure of shrimp fleet. 
of Commercial Fisheries photo) 
(Bureau 
telephones, 49 per cent have depth finders, 27 per 
cent have automatic pilots, 19 per cent have 
direction finders, and only seven per cent have 
radar. These percentages vary greatly by fishery. 
The U.S. fishing fleet is not fully utilized, due 
partly to the seasonal character of fisheries and the 
inability of much of the fleet to participate in 
several fisheries. Some under-utilization results 
from the inability of a substantial portion of the 
fleet to compete with other more modern vessels 
in the U.S. fleet and with foreign fishing fleets. 
Many vessels are unable to locate and catch fish 
under conditions of changing resource availability. 
Figure 3 shows vessel utilization by fishery for the 
US. fleet. Regardless of the reason for idle time, 
the data indicate an inability to spread fixed costs 
by larger annual catches. 
As indicated in Figure 4, 40 per cent of the 
documented vessels are part time (operating less 
than 120 days). The figure lists fishing vessels part 
time or full time by type of fishery in 1962. It 
should be borne in mind in interpreting these 
statistics that a large number of people fish 
commercially only in summer and for additional 
earnings, often encouraged by the low cost of 
commercial licenses. 
2. Case Study of New England Ground Fishery 
a. The Demand Many species of flatfish inhabit 
the U.S. Continental Shelves; some have such trade 
VI-138 
names as English sole, Dover sole, black back or 
yellowtail flounder, fluke, rex sole, etc. For the 
most part, however, in the United States they 
appear on restaurant menus or in food stores as 
fillet of sole. Such larger species as halibut often 
are steaked, finding ready retail market. 
Flounder is taken primarily by otter trawls, the 
same gear that catch most of the cod, hake, 
haddock, pollack, ocean perch, and many other 
kinds of groundfish. This conglomeration of fish is 
the foundation for the most rapidly growing edible 
fish commodity in the world—the frozen fish 
block from which fish sticks are made. The 
demand at dockside for these fish has grown 
between 1948 and 1966 from 850 million pounds 
to 1,900 million pounds. To compete in this 
expanding market, U.S. fishermen must meet the 
price established by foreign competition. 
b. Strength of the Supply Some species of 
groundfish off our coast are plentiful enough to 
meet domestic demand and provide a substantial 
export surplus. The supply of other species, 
however, has been considerably reduced by heavy 
fishing pressures, often by foreign fishermen. 
c. Domestic Production Decline The New Eng- 
land otter trawlers at the end of World War II were 
the strongest and most vigorously growing branch 
of the United States flag fishing industry. How- 
ever, the share of the domestic groundfish market 
claimed by the otter trawlers dropped from 74 per 
cent in 1948 to 29 per cent in 1966, causing a 
decline of U.S. position in the Northwest Atlantic 
fishery from first to eighth or ninth place. 
U.S. Federal policy has been partly responsible 
for the decline in harvesting New England ground- 
fish by encouraging other North Atlantic nations 
(particularly Canada and the Scandinavian coun- 
tries) to increase their dollar earnings. In addition, 
Canadian fishermen have received liberal vessel 
construction subsidies and much related support 
from both their federal and provincial govern- 
ments. 
d. Effects on Domestic Fishermen Our fishermen 
have been forced, as a result, to restrict their 
activities to the higher priced resources of inshore 
flounder, Georges Bank haddock, and scallop. 
These species are taken by the smaller U.S. vessels 
