IMPORTS AND EXPORTS OF SELECTED FISHERY PRODUCTS, JANUARY-JULY 1958: Imports: GROUNDFISH FILLETS AND BLOCKS: Imports for the first seven months of 1958 were 5 percent above those of the similar period of 1957. July 1958 imports of cod fillets were 76 percent higher than in July 1957, whereas imports of haddock, hake, pollock, and cusk fillets were down 41 percent. Imports of ocean-perch fillets showed an 80 percent gain over those of July 1957; shipments from Canada were nearly double those of last year. Seven-month imports of blocks and slabs were higher than during the comparable period of 1957, due mainly to increased receipts from Denmark and Norway.

FISH BITS: Nearly 8 million pounds of this new groundfish product were imported from Iceland during April-July 1958.

FROZEN SALMON: A 46-percent increase in July receipts brought the 1958 seven-month total 29 percent above the comparable 1957 total.

FROZEN TUNA: July 1958 imports of yellowfin and skipjack tuna from Japan were 44 percent above those in July 1957; seven months imports were 38 percent higher than for the comparable 1957 period. Imports of frozen albacore tuna were 11 percent lower during July and 16 percent lower for the seven-month period.

TUNA LOINS AND DISCS: Total imports through July were down 51 percent from the similar 1957 period.

CANNED TUNA: A-56-percent gain in July shipments brought imports for the first seven months 14 percent above the comparable 1957 period. The Japanese tuna industry initiated a canned tuna advertising campaign in the United States on a small scale.

FRESH AND FROZEN LOBSTER: July imports of common lobster from Canada fell 28 percent below those of July 1957; imports of spiny lobster from the Union of South Africa dropped 32 percent. Largely because of the lower July receipts, seven months imports were 3.0 million pounds below those of the comparable 1957 period.

FRESH AND FROZEN SHRIMP: Imports in July were 18 percent higher than in July 1957; the total for the seven months of 1958 was 12 percent higher than for the similar 1957 period. CANNED SALMON: Imports during the first seven months of 1958 were 179 percent above the corresponding 1957 period.

CANNED SARDINES: July imports of canned sardines notin-oil were 1.0 million pounds over those of July 1957; shipments from the Union of South Africa were higher. Total receipts during the first seven months were 164 percent above those of the 1957 period. On the other hand, imports of canned sardines in-oil were 1.1 million pounds under July 1957 owing to lower shipments from Norway. Total receipts during the first seven months were 20 percent below the similar 1957 period.

The Union of South Africa declared a closed fishing season in territorial waters between August 31 and December 31 on shoal fish. These include pilchards used in the canned sardine industry. This was the first year that this fishery reached the 250,000-ton catch quota set in 1952. As a result of the favorable fishing season, exports of sardines from South Africa have increased.

CANNED OYSTERS: Increased receipts from Japan raised imports through July 1958 by 99 percent above the corresponding 1957 period.

FISH MEAL: July imports were 88 percent above those of July 1957; imports through July this year were 25 percent above the similar 1957 period.

Peru continued to be the leading source of fish meal imports. Recently, the Peruvian Government initiated an investigation of the effect of the increased intensity of fishing for anchovetas (now used in the production of fish meal) on the guano industry.

Exports: CANNED SARDINES, MACKEREL, AND ANCHOVIES: Exports of these products continued to be much below those of 1957, owing to reduced domestic packs of sardines, mackerel, and anchovies.

CANNED SALMON: Total exports for the seven months were 29 percent below those of the similar 1957 period. The United Kingdom has announced the removal of its restrictions on the importation of canned salmon from all areas except the Soviet Zone.

FISH OIL: Despite an increase in exports during July 1958 over those of July 1957, seven months totals were still 44 percent below exports during the similar 1957 period.

The September 1958 edible fish and shellfish (fresh, frozen, and canned) wholesale price index remained about unchanged from the high levels of the two preceding months. At 130.1 percent of the 1947-49 level, the index was 0.2 percent higher than for the preceding month and up by 8.4 percent as compared with September a year ago. Price trends for the four fishery products subgroups in September 1958 were mixed. Increases for some of the whole or drawn fresh finfish and fresh and frozen fillets more than balanced out decreases in wholesale prices for fresh and frozen shrimp and some of the canned items.

Landings of haddock at Boston in September 1958 continued the below-normal trends noted in recent months and good quality Great Lakes whitefish was also scarce. Prices in mid-September 1958 for large drawn haddock were up 33.6 percent from August and fresh whitefish increased 13.1 to 21.5 percent during the same period. These increases in September of this year were partially offset by slight declines in halibut and salmon prices (changes were due primarily to a shift from fresh to frozen prices during the month) and a 21.6-percent drop in fresh-water yellow pike prices. The net result was an increase of 3.5 percent in the index for the drawn, dressed, or whole finfish subgroup from August to September 1958. As compared with September 1957,

the subgroup index this September was up by 12.5 percent due mainly to 55.2 percent higher fresh drawn haddock prices. Both western halibut (down 16.8 percent) and Lake Superior drawn whitefish (down 10.4 percent) were lower this September as compared with the same month a year ago.

The fresh processed fish and shellfish subgroup index for September 1958 was up by only 1.0 percent from August, but was close to 9.3 percent above the same month in 1957. Higher fresh haddock fillet prices (up 20.8 percent) and slightly higher prices for fresh shucked oysters (up 4.4 percent) were just about offset by a seasonal drop in fresh shrimp prices at New York. As compared with September a year ago, prices this September were higher by 36.7 percent for fresh haddock fillets and 14.3 percent for fresh shrimp; oyster prices were unchanged.

The subgroup index for frozen processed fish and shellfish was about unchanged from August to September this year, but increased by 15.2 percent from September 1957 to September 1958. All frozen fillet prices in September this year were higher as compared with the preceding month and the same month in 1958. Frozen haddock fillets were up by 12.8 percent from August and higher by 33.9 percent from September a year ago. Frozen shrimp prices at Chicago

this September were down about 2.8 percent from August, but were higher by 9.5 percent when compared with the same month in 1957.

Canned fishery products subgroup prices were lower by 3.6 percent this September from a month ago and reflected the much better supplies of canned California sardines and Pacific Coast canned salmon available this year. A lighter 1958 season pack of Maine sardines helped to raise the index for this product by 6.3 percent from August to September this year. Wholesale prices for canned tuna were about unchanged during this period. All canned fishery products with the exception of canned pink salmon were priced higher in September 1958 than in September a year ago. The drop

in canned salmon prices (down 8.7 percent) in September of this year marks the first drop in a period of 12 months or longer. However, the higher prices for canned tuna and Maine and California sardines resulted in an increase of 2.3 percent in the index for the whole subgroup from September 1957 to September 1958. As of the end of September this year, prices at the packers' level for Maine sardines were firm and the market for canned salmon was firming due to the removal by the British of the restrictions on the imports of this item. The relatively heavy pack of California sardines after a long period of light production was creating a marketing problem and another record-breaking pack of tuna was tending to depress prices for this product.

Los Angeles cs.

5.30 5.68

123.7

132.4

131.3 105.0

New York Cs.

8.22 7.72

87.5

82.2 82.2

70.1

Warnings of possible dangers resulting from the disposal of radioactive wastes from atom factories, now and in the future, were sounded September 11 at a session of the Second United Nations International Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy at Geneva. Half of 56 papers on "environmental aspects of large-scale uses of atomic energy" submitted dealt with the oceans and their use as a kind of radioactive rubbish dump.

Dr. B. H. Ketchum (United States), in a paper dealing with researches into the biological factors involved in dumping radioactive wastes, pointed out that many of the radioactive isotopes would be incorporated in the marine biological system and would be transferred from organism to organism in the various steps of the food-chain.

One of the arguments for disposing of waste products in the depths of the ocean was that it would take centuries for the bottom layers to mix with the upper layers and that in that time most of the activity would have died. Dr. Ketchum, however, altered this picture by introducing a kind of biological "elevator."

He showed how plant and animal life in the sea would pick up and concentrate radioactivity at one level and move vertically, or horizontally, taking it with them. The radioactivity could thus be transferred upward or downward, regardless of the physical transport of the currents. Moreover, when the sea life which had concentrated the radioactivity died, the radioactive remains would sink toward the bottom. He insisted that far more work should be done on the study of this accumulation and transfer of contamination through the biological system.

Another warning was delivered by Dr. E. M. Kreps (U.S.S.R.), who reported on Soviet investigations of deep-sea trenches in the world's oceans. There are 19 such trenches whose depths exceed 4.5 miles. Some of them are hundreds and even thousands of miles in length. Fifteen of them are in the Pacific, one in the Indian Ocean and three in the Atlantic Ocean.

The U.S. S. R. has investigated 12 of these trenches and the report contended that they were unsuitable places for the disposal of radioactive waste. The assumption that they were stagnant ponds in the oceans was untrue because investigation had shown that the mixing of the upper and lower waters could take place in as short a time as five years.

He produced evidence of change in temperature, the distribution of oxygen and phosphate, and the character of the organic life of the Tonga trench which runs southward for nearly 800 miles from the Samoan Islands and which had been regarded as one of the likeliest "dumps."

He concluded by stating, "The radioactive waste compounds dumped into the trench and dissolved will inevitably be brought to the upper layers of the ocean on which man depends for his food. Consequently the dumping of radioactive materials in deep-sea trenches will constitute a real menace in the very near future."

Dr. H. J. Dunster (United Kingdom) reported on five years of experimental discharges of radioactivity from Britain's Windscale atom factory into the coastal waters of Cumberland. These are low-activity wastes and not of the same order of hazard as those for which deep-sea dumps were sought. At every stage the behavior of the discharges had been studied and samples of fish, seaweed, and sand regularly taken and their activity assessed. The results were reassuring, but questions were raised as to the ultimate undesirability of allowing even such dilute forms of radiation into open waters.

At the press briefing, the Chairman and the participants in the session were questioned at considerable length not only as to what might happen in the future but what is already happening.

The British and Americans conceded that radioactive materials have been dumped in Atlantic deeps--off the continental shelf--for the past eight years. The British dumping had consisted of contaminated machinery which was too clumsy to be packaged and buried like other radioactive waste, and the total disposed of in the Atlantic represented about 600 curies while international experts were considering experiments with 1,000,000 curies of radiation to find out what actually happens to the exchange of waters in the seas.

The consensus of the experts was that up to now the disposal had been well within safety limits. What they were considering was the large-scale disposals which might be involved in the expansion of the atomic energy industry.

FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION

WORLD FISHERIES MEETING
HELD ON COSTS AND EARNINGS:

The first international meeting on Costs and Earnings of Fishing Enterprises

International (Contd.)

opened in London on September 8. The meeting, called by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), was expected to be attended by more than 50 experts from some 22 countries. They discussed 22 technical papers dealing with the various problems, questions, and investigations concerned with costs and earnings in the fishing industries of their countries.

The meeting focused attention on many questions of crucial interest to all sections of the world's fishing industries. Subsidies, credit schemes, tax and duty concessions, port and shore facilities, insurance, price support, and marketing schemes, are some examples of government participation in the fishing industry.

The interest of the fishing industry itself has led to much investigation of costs and earnings, especially in the countries possessing important and highly-developed fishing industries. But there has been little collaboration or exchange of ideas and information between the investigators, so they have not benefited from each other's work. The meeting will enable the experts to exchange views and experience and discuss the methods used to study the subject in various countries.

The problems and difficulties encountered in the investigation of costs and earnings in the fishing industries are in themselves a hindrance to the rational development of fisheries. The meeting should do much to point the way in many countries towards finding the facts about costs and earnings and should help to make possible the planning of realistic programs for the development of fisheries on a sound, economic basis.

The countries represented at the meeting were Belgium, Canada, Denmark, El Salvador, Finland, France, German Federal Republic, Ghana, Guatemala, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Malaya, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Turkey, Uganda, United Kingdom, and the United States.

The agenda included these general topics for discussion:

MEETING HELD IN MARQUETTE, MICH.: A meeting of the Great Lakes Fishery Commission was held at Marquette, Mich., on June 10, 1958. Besides the Commissioners, the Advisory Committee of the American Section also was in attendance.

The Commission met primarily to consider reports on the progress of sea lamprey control to date and to discuss the program for fiscal year 1959 and the budget for fiscal year 1960. Scientists present for both nations reported great progress on the sea lamprey-control program. Because of low water in both Canadian and American streams, the biologists have been able to install their electrical barriers earlier than normal and a total of 130 of these are now in operation on Lakes Michigan and Superior. Also reported were three successful tests of sea lamprey control by chemical treatment of streams.

On June 11 the Commissioners, Advisors, and others in attendance viewed a fourth successful demonstration of the chemical method in Silver River, which is about 70 miles from Marquette. At test stations where the larval lampreys were confined in cages all specimens were dead within four hours of the appearance of the chemical on the site. The poison used in these tests is sold under the commercial name of "Lampricid 2770." It was introduced into the stream at the rate of three parts per