Failing Fleets

They gather each morning at dawn, waiting to see if the boats coming in are empty or full. Crewmen, captains, shipowners, processors and union representatives huddle in the gloom on fishing piers all along the New England seacoast. Like generations of fishermen before them, many of these weather-lined men work grueling twelve-hour shifts in biting winds and high seas for days on end. Unlike their predecessors, however, they are catching fewer fish every year--which is one reason that U.S. fish prices are rising so fast.

In the 1960s, New England fishermen harvested some 700 million lbs. of cod, flounder and haddock annually. Last year they netted only 375 million lbs. Some fish appear to be nearing extinction: the New England haddock catch has shriveled since 1960 from 112 million lbs. to only 7 million lbs.

"It was the Russians that did it," complains a mariner in Gloucester, Mass. "They came here with their 'vacuum ships' and cleaned up." Not only the Soviet Union, but also Japan, East Germany, Poland, Iceland, Spain and other nations have been sending their big and in some cases government-subsidized fleets to the rich grounds beyond America's twelve-mile limit. Using modern stern trawlers and factory ships that can process and then freeze while still at sea, these fleets have been able to stay for months at a stretch where the fishing is good.

200 Mile Limit. By contrast, New England fishermen are not subsidized, and their ships are small and antiquated. They must carry ice in their holds to keep the catch fresh and must return to port every seven days lest the fish rot. Some imported frozen fish from Canada costs much less than fresh domestic fish caught in the same New England waters. As a result, two-thirds of the fish eaten in the U.S. last year was imported.

To bail out the domestic fleet, Senator Warren Magnuson of Washington and Congressman Gerry Studds of Massachusetts have co-authored a bill that would extend U.S. fishing waters from the present twelve miles to 200 miles. But, fearing that foreign nations would reciprocate with 200-mile limits of their own, the State and Defense departments as well as some U.S. tuna fishermen on the West Coast and shrimpers on the Gulf Coast oppose the bill, and so it is not expected to pass. New England fishermen stand a better chance of getting help from the U.N.-sponsored Law of the Sea Conference, which will open June 20 in Caracas. Control of ocean resources, including fish, will be high on the agenda. But even those who predict the eventual enactment of a badly needed treaty providing for conservation in ocean management concede that implementing such a treaty will require at least a decade.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.