Red Herring

In 40 years of fishing the Atlantic off Cape May, N.J., Frank Cassedy never had a bad cod season--until last winter. Known around the Cape as the Iron Man, Cassedy blames the Russian fishing fleet massed off the mid-Atlantic states for his poor catch. The Russians are fishing for herring, not cod. "But they don't throw anything back," he says. "I've never seen anything like it. It's like the Spanish Armada."

To Cassedy and thousands of other American commercial fishermen, the foreign fishing fleets offshore challenge both pride and purse. The strangers are ever more intensively exploiting, both coasts of the U.S., and men like Cassedy are finding it increasingly difficult to live up to the coveted title of "high hooker." The Russians have about 160 vessels along the East Coast alone, and they are not the only uninvited guests. Twenty-five Polish vessels trawl off the East Coast; some 125 Japanese boats operate off Alaska. One result is that since 1954 the U.S. has dropped from second place as a world fish producer (after Japan), to fifth.

The foreign presence results partly from differing national needs. The U.S. does not share most other nations' hunger for fish as a source of protein. Hence the American fishing industry has not kept pace with some of its competitors in either technology or organization. And what American captains tend to regard as poaching is usually done within the law.*The U.S. Bureau of Commercial Fisheries keeps a sharp eye out for irregularities. Last week an American investigating team boarded a Soviet ship for an inspection and found everything in order.

Mother Glory. The semipermanent Russian flotilla is nothing if not well-organized. The largest Russian "mother" vessels measure half again as long as a football field and constitute floating factories in which the daily hauls of up to 20 trawlers are processed, frozen and stored. They also supply and refuel the smaller vessels and can haul them out of the water for repairs. Black Sea Glory even has medical and dental facilities for trawler crewmen, as well as movies and ball games on deck.

TIME Correspondent David Whiting, who chartered a boat to follow the fleet, reported that there are other forms of recreation on board. Noticing one attractive girl dressed in a black leather outfit, Whiting asked her if there were wives along. "Some," she replied, "are just girl friends." Russian crewmen greeted Whiting with smiles, waves and lots of picture taking. When their officers were not looking, they were happy to exchange their pungent Russian cigarettes for American filters. Mostly, the Russians gave the thumbs-up sign and observed that the fishing was good.

Soviet Capitalists. Part of these foreign catches finds its way back to the U.S., which imports three-quarters of the fish products it consumes. For a variety of reasons, including lower labor costs, government subsidies and sophisticated equipment, a few foreign producers can cruise close to U.S. shores, process their catch, and sell it on the American market--all for less than the same cycle costs a local fisherman.

That could prove increasingly disastrous for some U.S. areas where fishing is a major industry. In the New England fishing states, the total share of the catch that went to local fishermen dropped from 93% to 35% in the last recorded five-year period. Much of the reversal was due to those well-equipped, hungry Soviet fishermen, who in 1964-65 virtually depleted the Georges Bank area of haddock in just one expedition. In their own backyard, the Russians have seriously reduced the sturgeon population of the Caspian Sea, doubling export caviar prices over the past 13 years. Clearly, they are the most determined capitalist exploiters of the sea.

*While the U.S. claims a territorial limit of three miles offshore--a definition set in 1793 as the range of a cannonball fired from land--Congress adopted legislation in 1966 prohibiting foreign vessels from fishing within twelve miles of the U.S. coast. The foreign boats generally stay beyond the farther limit.

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