Dolla per Ton Price Per Ton of Yellowfin Tuna, Imported Source: U.S. Department of Interior, Bureau of Yellowfin, gilled and gutted, 20 100 lbs. + by Mr. EDEN. Will you hold up the first chart? This first chart shows the supply of canned tuna in the United States from 1948 to 1962, inclusive, and as you can see it has gone up considerably, almost triple, in this 14-year period. Will you turn to the next chart? Senator BARTLETT. Wait just one moment. Will you tell us what you mean exactly by "supply"? Mr. EDEN. This is the amount of canned tuna on the domestic U.S. market year by year. The second chart shows the sources of supply of this canned tuna for the same period of time. The bottom shaded section shows that portion of the total which has come from the domestic catch. As you can see, it represented some 92 percent or thereabouts of the total canned supply in 1948, and it has dropped rapidly until it now represents slightly less than 40 percent, 39 percent. The bulk of the pack is now made from imported fish or comes in the form of imported canned tuna, mostly imported canned in brine, which is at a lower tax. The next chart, which is a little difficult to see, shows the ex-vessel tuna prices for yellowfins, bluefin, and skipjack for 1950 to 1962, and then for May 1963. So it is right up to date. As you can see, the prices have been extremely erratic. The price levels vary from species to species, but in general they tended to go up until 1954, and thereafter they have declined also erratically, with a bit of an upswing in 1962, but then a very sharp decline on May 18, 1963. Senator BARTLETT. Do you mind questions as you go along? Mr. EDEN. Not at all. Senator BARTLETT. What was the average price, if there was an everage price, or prices, by species in 1950? The weighted average is all right. Mr. EDEN. I have the figures. The weighted averages are roughly above and below $300 a ton in 1950, depending on species. I can give you the exact prices. Senator BARTLETT. No; that is sufficient, Mr. Eden. Now, how about the end of 1962? Mr. EDEN. They had declined, also depending on species. Yellowfin was slightly above $300; bluefin was at the $275 a ton level, and skipjack was about $260, approximately. Senator BARTLETT. Will you tell us what the situation was in 1954? Mr. EDEN. The peak in this period was in 1954, when the weighted average price was about $345 per ton for yellowfin, about $343 or thereabouts for bluefin, and about $305 for skipjack. Senator BARTLETT. Now I am going to ask you to do this, if you will: In a statement which I know you can't give us right now, but I wish you would furnish subsequently for the committee, I wish you would let us know what the buying power of the 1962 dollar is as compared with the 1950 dollar? Mr. EDEN. I will have a chart a little later. Senator BARTLETT. Oh, you have that. Fine. Senator BARTLETT. Good enough. You anticipated me. Mr. EDEN. The next chart shows the composition of the California tuna fishing fleet from 1950 to 1962, inclusive. The bottom section of each bar represents the bait boat clipper fleet. The white area represents the converted purse seine fleet, and the top part of the bar, with the diagonal hatching, represents the regular purse seine fleet. I think several things are quite apparent from this chart. The total carrying capacity in tons of tuna reached a peak in 1951 of approximately 53,000 tons. By 1962 the total carrying capacity had dropped to approximately 35,000 tons, and the overall decline is in the area of 35 percent. Within this overall decline there has been a drastic decline in the bait boat clipper fleet. That has practically disappeared. Whereas it used to be the vast bulk of the carrying capacity, it now is only a very minor portion of the total. At the present time the major tonnage is brought in by the converted purse seiners. The next chart. This chart shows the number of vessels and fishermen in the California fisheries in 1950 and in 1961. It is based upon Department of Interior figures. The first panel on the left shows the decline in the number of vessels. I think Mr. Royal mentioned this. The overall decline has been from 2,100 vessels in 1950 to 1,506 in 1961. The number of fishermen on these vessels dropped from 10,894 in 1950 to 5,596 in 1961, a decline of about 49 percent. At the same time the number of fishermen on boats and shore, and I must tell you what that is, vessels are vessels of 5 tons and more. Boats are of less than 5 tons. The fishermen on the small boats and the fishermen who work from the shore without having boats at all dropped from 5,267 in 1950 to 2,439 in 1961. You can see this industry has suffered a very drastic decline. The next chart shows from 1961 up to May 1963 the number of California tuna vessels transferred to foreign ports. In 1961, 19 vessels were transferred; in 1962, 27 vessels; and up to May 10, 1963, 8 vessels. Senator BARTLETT. Do you happen to know to which foreign ports these vessels were transferred? Mr. EDEN. I don't have the exact breakdown of the places to which they went, but the data is available, and I am sure it can be supplied by the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries here in San Pedro. Senator BARTLETT. I want to know whether Puerto Rico is considered a foreign territory in this chart? Mr. EDEN. Yes, it is, sir. Senator BARTLETT. All right. Mr. EDEN. The number of crewmen's jobs lost in 1961 was 186; in 1962, 261; and up to May 10, 1963, 80. In other words, we have dropped some 527 jobs in the last 2 years and 5 months. The next chart in order is based on the census of population data. The census gives a breakdown showing number of fishermen and oystermen, and it gives it for major metropolitan areas. This chart is based on it. The four panels on the left show the 1950 census data on the number of fishermen and oystermen in the State of California as a whole, and in Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Francisco. The two panels on the right show the same figures for Oregon and Washington. In all cases there has been a catastrophic decline in the number reporting themselves as fishermen and oystermen in the census of population. For California as a whole the drop from 1950 to 1960 was from 7,250 down to 3,218, a decline of about 57 percent. It is similar in the various ports. In San Diego the decline has been more sharp, from 2,130 to 797. In Los Angeles the drop has been very, very sharp indeed. The next chart shows the number of licensed fishermen in California as reported by the California Department of Fish and Game, and, as you can see, the number of such licensed commercial fishermen dropped from approximately 15,000 in the 1949-50 season to a little less than 8,000 in the 1960-61 season. It is a drop of almost half. The next chart is based on incomplete data, but I present to you what is available. In 1958 the U.S. Tariff Commission made a study of tunafish in which they provided data on the average annual net shares of crewman on southern California baitboats from 1948 to 1957 and compared that to the average annual earnings of factory workers in San Diego for the same period. What I did was to bring this chart up to date as much as I could, and I did bring up to date the earnings of factory workers in San Diego up to 1963, March 1963, to be exact. As you can see, it has gone up steadily over the years from a little over $3,000 in 1948 up to approximately $6,500 or thereabouts in 1963. The average net shares of crewmen on southern California baitboats dropped erratically, it is true, but it has dropped. It started at about the $7,000 level or a little better in 1948, declined very sharply to 1952, rose to a peak of about $6,600 in 1954, and thereafter continued to decline sharply. The Tariff Commission figure ended in 1957. So we don't know what it has been since then. However, I have marked on that chart the median earnings of a fisherman and oystermen in Los Angeles and San Diego as reported by the census for the year 1959, and I have marked it on the chart with two X's in 1959, and you can see that they are an indication that the decline in the earnings of the crewman has continued, so that what we have here is the classical scissors. One scissors, that of the fishermen, going downward, and the other, of all other workers on the shoreside establishments, going upward. So that the relative deterioration of the fisherman has been very sharp indeed. They have not shared in the last 14 years of relative prosperity. Senator BARTLETT. Just so it will be a matter of the printed record, as well as the chart record, Mr. Eden, what were the average annual net shares of crewmen at the time the Tariff Commission studies concluded? Mr. EDEN. At the time of the Tariff Commission figure of 1957, the figure was $4,800-$4,900. For the crewmen, $4,800. For the average San Diego factory workers, it was approximately $4,900. So they had reached about the same level in that year. Senator BARTLETT. As you know, the San Diego factory workers' earnings have gone up since then. Mr. EDEN. Oh, yes. |