4. Emphasis in the Bureau of Commercial Fish- 
eries 
The Bureau of Commercial Fisheries has a small 
number of college trained engineers in exploratory 
fishing and gear research (Figure 10). The magni- 
tude of engineering problems in the fishing fleet 
indicates that the Bureau should expand its ocean 
engineering and exploratory fishing efforts sub- 
stantially. 
The Bureau must expedite engineering of new 
vessels, gear, and equipment for search, detection, 
and harvesting. This should be closely coordinated 
with the Sea Grant College Programs, especially 
the at-sea technician training. 
E. Conclusions 
The status of the domestic fishing industry can 
be summarized as follows: annual production of 4 
to 6 billion pounds, static for nearly 30 years; 
market for about 14 billion pounds, growing much 
more rapidly than population; resources off the 
U.S. coast for a catch of at least 30 billion pounds 
per year. The question arises as to how the 
domestic fishing industry can leave the first figure, 
move toward the second, and prepare for the 
third. 
Ass in other industries, technology in fisheries is 
applied to supply, demand and production prob- 
lems. With respect to supply, technology is re- 
quired to assess and assure the continued availabil- 
ity of fish stocks supporting traditional fisheries. 
In addition, it is required to assess and develop 
fisheries for under-utilized resources (e.g., Atlantic 
and Gulf thread herring, Pacific hake, etc.). Efforts 
directed toward traditional resources encompass 
the technology of supporting biological research, 
as in preventing overfishing and ensuring that 
conservation laws and treaties are based soundly 
on research, not emotion. Additional technological 
effort is required to prevent destruction of stocks 
by pollution. The effort directed toward under- 
utilized resources poses such new technology 
problems as harvesting species of low concentra- 
tion or fishing in depths not now feasible, Aqua- 
culture promises to increase the supply of edible 
fish in fresh water and estuaries, especially the 
luxury species. 
With respect to demand, it is estimated that 
over half the fish products on today’s market were 
unknown a decade ago (e.g., fish sticks, etc.). Fish 
VI-154 
protein concentrate (FPC) presents possibilities for 
vast increases in demand; process technology is a 
key factor here. 
Production from the fishermen’s viewpoint 
demands major consideration. Since the fishing 
industry is quite heterogeneous, it is natural that 
the fishing fleet should also be described in the 
same fashion. Some fisheries, such as those of 
tuna, shrimp, and Alaska king crab, have fairly 
modern fleets; but some are static or rapidly 
declining as a result of foreign competition or 
fishery depletion, giving the entire industry a 
similar reputation. Part of the New England 
groundfish industry is an example. The domestic 
fleet is second only to Japan in number of vessels; 
moreover an examination of gross tonnage shows 
the U.S. fleet is essentially a coastal and inland 
waterway fleet. However, this should not neces- 
sarily be regarded as a disadvantage, because the 
U.S. domestic fish production is obtained predom- 
inantly from fishery resources adjacent to our 
coasts. 
In addition to the vessel, the production aspect 
involves search, detection, and harvest. Fish hunt- 
ing has been estimated to require an average of 50 
per cent of the fisherman’s sea time, but in some 
fisheries it may be considerably more, thereby 
constituting a very costly factor. Hunting itself 
consists of two steps: searching for the general 
area of commercial concentrations and then 
detecting the precise position of the fish. Long- 
range search involves broad-scale mapping with 
heavy dependence on environmental information. 
Ultimately, it could receive much support from 
satellites, buoys, and computers with appropriate 
instantaneous (realtime) sensing equipment. 
Search is critical to pelagic fishing. Detection 
relying on sonars, fish odors, and lasers is criti- 
cal with respect to groundfish. 
There are many quite fertile under-utilized fish 
resource areas adjacent to our coasts. Because of 
this and the costly time expended in hunting fish, 
a concentrated effort should be made toward 
improving vessels and gear in the hunting process, 
resulting in an immediate financial return to our 
coastal fisheries. 
The United States has paid relatively little 
attention to radically new fishing methods and 
systems linked to broad analysis of oceanographic 
variables. In this respect, we are far behind the 
Soviet Union, despite the inherently greater indus- 
