Evening star., 1958-09-21
Fishing Life Line
For Great Britain

The fishery associations of the six
other Western European countries
regularly sending trawlers to lee
landic waters we're equally firm
in their rejection.
There are only some $50 mod
ern trawlers like the Arctic Star
in the British fishing feet. They
are manned by less than 10000
trawlermen. But they are respon-
sible for half the total of fish
landed, whether from near, mid
die or distant waters, and they
are by far the most prosperous
section of the fishing industry.
A successful captain will earn
as much as 1000 pounds a year,
which puts him up among the
senior civil servants and top
ranking university professors, by
British salary standards. A deck
hand can earn 100 pounds on a
single trip, and may earn a lot
more if he picks the right ship.
because his pay is geared to the
profit shown on each voyage.
The high pay and considerable
prestige of the trawlermen are no
accident. They reflect the way in
which the industry has succeeded
in moving with the times.
The prewar trawler. coal fired,
weighing as little as 200 tons and
with top speed of about 10
knots, was lucky if its naviga-
tional aids included anything so
elaborate as a radio transmitter.
In rough weather or in an Arctic
fog the captains only resource
was "dodging"-cutting the speed
to about knots and waiting for
the weather to improve.
The modern trawler, though
still impoSsibly small and insecure
by any other ocean-going stand
ards, offers the crew at least few
of the comforts and conveniences .
Of modern invention. Usually oil
fired and with a weight of any
thing up to 1000 tons, it carries
instruments for sounding the wa
ter and nosing out-though still
with plenty of room for error and
for exercise Of the captains flair
the shoals of fish.
Important IN Diet 40
The power of the British traw-
lermen also reflects the vital place
of their product in the Briton'S
diet. Although seafood has been
steadily losing popularity since the
end of World War II, the average
Brlton still eats three times as
much as the American This helps
him to compensate for the fact
that, in his crowded islands. farm
land is limited and meat conSump-
ton is only half the American
average. In fact, Britain cannot
live without the fish that it has
for centuries won from the oceans
around it, Nor can Belgium,
France, Germany and the other
maritime countries whose trawlers
now ply the Arctic Ocean. re-
1t is sometimes said that the
time has come when these ocean
resources must be used less waste
fully than in the past, and that
active conservation policies, like
those applied to the natural hem-
tage of the United States, are now
overdue, The success of the inter
national agreement in protecting
whales from extinction is quoted
as an example of the kind of cove
nant that might be applied to
other fishing. From what l saw
and heard aboard the Arctic
Star, I believe that the average
trawlerman, although bred to the
conviction that the oceans wealth
is eXpendable and inexhauStible,
would be willing to listen to this
argument. But, if you tell him
that some of the grounds that he
has tested and probed over long
hard years of experience will from
now on be the preserve of trawlers
from a single country-that is the
moment when he will really begin
to kick up a storm.