October 1966 



COMMERCIAL FISHERIES REVIEW 



29 



personal loss for some people, or a combi- 

 nation. A concern for the future, which is 

 having something "good" over the longest 

 time, does not necessarily help solve an im- 

 mediate problem. All such questions remain 

 open, as they do when we say that conserva- 

 tion is wise use of natural resources, because 

 the slogan does not tell us what wisdom is. 



There is an element of utopianism in con- 

 servation at the slogan level and I think in 

 actuality. 



Our awakened devotion to natural beauty 

 and a society's greatness has Olympian as- 

 pects. That the gods differed on Olympus is 

 not entirely beside the point! 



As soon as we move from Olympian words 

 and sloganeering words to action, when we 

 move from being conservationists to being 

 conservators, we enter a more complex and 

 difficult world where good will is not enough 

 and where there are "good wills" on a con- 

 flict course. And we move from philosophic 

 heights to dollar -and -cents facts. And the 



dollars are not all-out theoretical to your 

 concern for the protection of salt marshes. 



Let us look at some of the estuarine values 

 that are being destroyed. A salt marsh in 

 Massachusetts --that is, a healthy one --can 

 produce a harvestable crop of protein-rich 

 seafood worth $300 an acre annually. This is 

 about equal to the fish farm ponds of the Mid- 

 dle West, and both far exceed the production 

 of the best cattlelands of the western grass- 

 lands. 



Estuaries Important to 

 Commercial Fishermen 



During a recent 10 -year period along the 

 North Atlantic coast, commercial finfish land- 

 ings averaged 1.6 billion pounds, and shell- 

 fish landings were 107 million pounds, for a 

 monetary value of about $90 million. A large 

 percentage of these fisheries depends on es- 

 tuaries because the species spend at least 

 part of their life in them. This is clear for 

 shellfish and Crustacea. It is probably less 

 well known for many species of finfish. Men- 



Fig. 2 - Estuaries like this are being destroyed along the coastline of the United States, 



