308 



Economic Aspects 



Harbor Commissioners, City of Los Angeles, 

 1957). The smaller number of ships enter- 

 ing since 1935 is merely a reflection of the 

 increase in average size of modern ships; 

 for example, some tankers now using the 

 port have a capacity of about 700,000 bar- 

 rels. Since 1923, when the period of great 

 oil production began in the Los Angeles 

 Basin, about 85 per cent of the cargo ton- 

 nage has been petroleum or petroleum 

 products, imported and exported. Most 

 imports are from Venezuela, the Persian 

 Gulf, and Canada. About two-thirds of the 

 ships are of American registry, although 80 

 per cent are in foreign trade as opposed to 

 coastal shipping. This growth of shipping 

 has required a high state of development of 

 port facilities at San Pedro and Long Beach 

 — the Los Angeles Harbor — which has 150 

 acres of wharves and sheds and more under 

 construction. A parallel but much smaller 

 increase in shipping occurred at San Diego 

 for which, instead of petroleum, Navy activ- 

 ities are chiefly responsible, with cotton 

 being the main commercial cargo. 



Larger commercial fishing craft in Los 

 Angeles Harbor number about 878, a figure 

 that represents a slow and steady increase 

 from 847 in 1946 (Mr. E. W. Park, Los 

 Angeles Harbor Department, personal 

 communication). About 125 are purse 

 seiners, and most of the rest are jig boats. 

 The lack of rapid increase is probably a re- 

 flection of competition from foreign supplies 

 of tuna, sardines, and mackerel. More than 

 a hundred sportfishing craft are chartered 

 for catches of rockfish, bass, mackerel, alba- 

 core, and barracuda. In addition, many 

 pleasure craft are used for occasional private 

 fishing. 



Since about 1920 the increased popula- 

 tion, leisure, and interest in the ocean have 

 produced a rise in the number of sail and 

 inboard powered pleasure craft in southern 

 California from less than 1500 to more than 

 15,000 (Fig. 237). Although this represents 

 only about 3 per cent of the total number 

 in the United States, most of the others are 

 in areas having large enclosed bays. Facih- 

 ties for docking are at a premium, and new 

 small-boat harbors and marinas are rapidly 



being developed at many places along the 

 coast (Patterson, 1950; numerous press 

 notices). In part to avoid docking charges, 

 innumerable other small pleasure craft 

 powered by outboard engines are kept in 

 garages and moved by trailers. During the 

 early years of yachting in the region the 

 many islands off" the coast provided destina- 

 tions at convenient distances and of suf- 

 ficient interest that many pleasure cruises 

 were made to them (Holder, 1910). As a 

 result of competition from other forms of 

 entertainment, military restrictions, and 

 smaller average size of pleasure craft owing 

 to high taxes and high cost of operation, 

 the islands are now less frequently visited 

 (Warren, 1958; Hillinger, 1958) and many 

 boats are used only in the restricted waters 

 of the small enclosed bays of the region. 



Some rather unusual craft have sailed the 

 waters off' southern California in recent 

 years. One is the raft Lehi built by DeVere 

 Baker and sailed after several false starts 

 from Redondo to the Hawaiian Islands in 

 69 days between July 13 and September 20, 

 1958, as a sort of reverse test of Mormon 

 history. Another is the 50-ton submarine. 

 Cetacean, built by Edmund Martine, the 

 builder of diving bells at Santa Monica, 

 Santa Catalina Island, and elsewhere. 

 Launched in 1955 with the intention of being 

 used to great depth, it was soon modified 

 by installation of a large window for picture 

 taking, thus destroying its depth capabil- 

 ities. During late 1958 the bathyscaphe 

 Trieste and its builder Jacques Piccard 

 (Piccard and Dietz, 1957) were brought to 

 San Diego to begin a Navy-sponsored pro- 

 gram of investigation of the water, life, and 

 bottom in great depths off" southern Cali- 

 fornia. In water shallower than 100 meters 

 a type of small two-diver craft called a Mini- 

 sub has been developed and used in scien- 

 tific studies of the mainland shelf off" San 

 Diego by the U. S. Navy Electronics Lab- 

 oratory. This trend toward the undersea 

 region may be followed by cargo ships that 

 have their cigar-shaped hulls under water 

 and expose only a navigational cabin atop 

 a vertical fin. Such a ship now being studied 

 would avoid much of the motion induced by 



