UC San Diego Research Theses and Dissertations Title The Tragedy of Enclosure: Fish, Fisheries Science, and U.S. Foreign Policy, 1920-1960 Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7s94b287 Author Finley, Mary C. Publication Date 2007 Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO The Tragedy of Enclosure: Fish, Fisheries Science, and U.S. Foreign Policy, 1920-1960 A Dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in History (Science Studies) by Mary Carmel Finley Committee in charge: Professor Naomi Oreskes, Chair Professor Michael Bernstein Professor Tony Koslow Professor John Marino Professor Chandra Mukerji Professor Daniel Vickers UMI Number: 3284217 Copyright 2007 by Finley, Mary Carmel All rights reserved. UMI Microform 3284217 Copyright 2008 by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1346 Copyright Mary Carmel Finley, 2007 All rights reserved. The Dissertation of Mary Carmel Finley is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication on microfilm. Chair University of California, San Diego 2007 iii DEDICATION In memory of my father, Howard Patrick MacDougall, and my niece, Ella Delau MacDougall iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Signature Page……………………………………………………………………….....iii Dedication……………………………………………………………………………….iv Table of Contents………………………………………………………….……………v List of Abbreviations…………………………………………………………………..xiii List of Illustrations……………………………………………………………………..xiv List of Graphs………………………………………………………………………... ..xv Preface………………………………………………………………………………….xvi Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………xix Vita……………………………………………………………………………………..xxii Abstract………………………………………………………………………………..xxiii Introduction……………………………………………………………………. ………..1 Chapter 1: The Inexhaustibility of the Fish in the Sea…………………................24 1.1 Early American Fisheries…………………………………………………29 1.2 The U.S. Fish Commission ………………………………………………33 1.3 The Start of American Fisheries Science……………………………….35 1.4 The Progressive Legacy………………………………………...............39 1.5 Fish and Fisheries Science ..………………………………………….44 1.6 Salmon and Fisheries Science………………………………………… 47 1.7 The Alaskan Fishing Industry………………….……………………….51 v 1.8 Fishery Science in the West ………………………………………… 55 1.9 Reaching Maximum Productivity ………………………………………..59 Chapter 2: Rising Technology, Falling Catches …………………………………...67 2.1 The Bering Sea Ecosystem………………………………………………72 2.2 The Halibut Fishery………………………………………………………74 2.3 Thompson Goes to California……………………………………. ……79 2.4 Regulating Fishing………………………………………………………...85 2.5 Establishing a School of Fisheries………………………………………87 2.6 The Fluctuating Salmon Catch…………………………………………..91 2.7 Conserving Halibut………………………………………………………..97 2.8 Thompson and the School of Fisheries…………………………………99 2.9 Resisting Limitations…………………………………………………… 101 Chapter 3: The World’s Best Fishermen…………………………………………..110 3.1 Japan and the Sea………………………………………………………113 3.2 The Roots of Japanese Fishing………………………………………..117 3.3 Fishing in the Meiji Era, 1868-1900……………………………………119 3.4 The Imperial Institute of Fisheries……………………………………...123 3.5 The Expansion and Westernization of Japanese Fishing…………...128 3.6 The Northern Ocean Fishery and Japanese Tensions………………132 3.7 Tension with the Soviet Union………………………………………….135 vi 3.8 The Expansion of Japanese Trading…………………………………..139 3.9 The Japanese and Bristol Bay, 1936-1939…………………………...143 Chapter 4: American Fisheries Science…………………………………………...151 4.1 The Ecosystem of Tuna…………………………………………………153 4.2 The American Fishery for Tuna………………………………………...156 4.3 Tensions Over the Japanese…………………………………………...163 4.4 The “Scientific “Investigation of Bristol Bay…………………………...167 4.5 The American Argument……………………………………………......173 4.6 The Americans and Conserving Salmon……………………………...175 4.7 Industrial Fishing…………………………………………………………182 Chapter 5: The Question of Over-fishing versus the Desire to Fish………..…..188 5.1 Trying to Regulate Fishing……………………………………………..192 5.2 Fishing and the War in the U.S. ………………………………………195 5.3 Harry S. Truman Goes Fishing………………………………………..200 5.4 Conservation Zones in the Ocean…………………………………….203 5.5 The Truman Proclamations…………………………………………….205 5.6 The Pacific Fisheries Frontier………………………………………….209 5.7 Military Support for the Industry ………………………………………212 5.8 Transforming Global Fisheries…………………………………………217 vii Chapter 6: Increasing Capacity in Japan…………………………………...…..…227 6.1 Feeding Japan…………………………………………………………...229 6.2 Transforming Japan….………………………………………………….233 6.3 The Resumption of Whaling…………………………………………….235 6.4 SCAP and American Science…………………………………………..239 6.5 SCAP and American Fisheries Science……………………………….243 6.6 William Herrington in Japan…………………………………………….248 6.7 Expanding the MacArthur Zone………………………………………..252 6.8 Japanese-American Relations…………………………………………256 6.9 Controlling the Japanese Fleet…………………………………………258 6.10 The Visiting American Experts…..……………………………………262 Chapter 7: Increasing Global Capacity…………………………………………….271 7.1 Rebuilding the Global Fishing Fleet……………………………………274 7.2 The Global Expansion…………………………………………………..278 7.3 American Funding of Fishing Expansion……………………………..282 7.4 Fishing and the State Department…………………………………….286 7.5 Expanding Fishing Opportunities………………………………………291 7.6 The Expansion of Tuna Fishing………………………………………..298 7.7. The First Voyage of the Pacific Explorer ……………………………..300 7.8 The Gang of Five………………………………………………………...308 viii Chapter 8: Manifest Destiny and the Adoption of MSY………………………….315 8.1 Chapman the “Biopolitician”……………………………………………319 8.2 A Trio of Fishery Problems……………………………………………..322 8.3 MSY and Conservation………………………………………………….326 8.4 MSY and the Role of Fishing in Fish Populations……………………332 8.5 Creating Fishery Commissions…………………………………………334 Chapter 9: Fish and the Japanese Peace Treaty…………………………………343 9.1 Japan and the Fisheries Treaty………………………………………...347 9.2 The Japanese Fisheries Crisis…………………………………………351 9.3 The American Fisheries Crisis………………………………………….357 9.4 John Foster Dulles and the Peace Treaty……………………………358 9.5 Signing the Peace Treaty……………………………………………….365 Chapter 10: Contested Science and Law in the North Pacific…………………..368 10.1 A New Fisheries Treaty for the North Pacific………………………..371 10.2 Fisheries Science and American Hegemony………………………..372 10. 3 Japan’s Scientific Reputation………………………………………...376 10. 4 Negotiating a Fisheries Treaty……………………………………….381 10. 5 Differences in Power…………………………………………………..385 10. 6 Japanese Fishery Expansion in the North Pacific………………….387 10. 7 The International Tensions…………………………………………...389 10. 8 American Fishery Expansion in the North Pacific………………….392 ix 10. 9 Declining Runs in Alaska……………………………………………..395 10.10 The International North Pacific Fisheries Commission.…………..398 10.11 Blaming the Japanese………………………………………………..402 Chapter 11: The Road to Rome…………………………………………………….411 11.1 U.S. Foreign Policy and Latin America………………………………414 11.2 The Territorial Claims………………………………………………….419 11.3 The International Tuna Industry………………………………………422 11.4 Fish and Foreign Policy………………………………………………..424 11.5 Fish and the Domestic Economy……………………………………..428 11.6 The International Events………………………………………………430 11.7 The U.S. Tariff Commission Report of 1953………………………..434 11.8 The Santiago Declaration of 1952……………………………………437 11.9 Herrington’s Principle of Abstention and Latin America……………440 11.10 The Caracas Conference……………………………………………445 11.11 The Conference in Rome……………………………………………448 11.13 The Freedom of the Seas……………………………………………450 Chapter 12: The Rome Meeting…………………………………………………….457 12.1 On the Dynamics of Exploited Fish Populations ……………………461 12.2. Other advances in science ..…………………………………………465 12.3 The Technical Conference …………………………………………..466 x 12.4 On the Scientific Investigations of Tuna……………………………..468 12.5 Types of Scientific Information………………………………………..473 12. 6 Controlling the Rate of Fishing……………………………………….477 12.7 The Scientific Dissent………………………………………………….479 12.8 The State Department Preparation……………………………….….483 Chapter 13: The Rome Meeting……………………………………………………494 13.1 The Conference Results………………………………………….…..498 13.2 Science in the Service of Foreign Policy……………………………501 13.3 The Three Partial Theories……………………………………………504 13.4 When Overfishing Becomes Habitual………………………………..506 Chapter 14: Fishing “Up” to MSY…………………………………………………..511 14.1 Continued Dissent on MSY……………………………………………514 14.2 The Japanese Critique…………………………………………………520 14.3 The Japanese Expansion……………………………………………..525 14.4 The American Crisis……………………………………………………527 14.5 Subsidizing American Fisheries………………………………………531 14.6 Eisenhower and the Fish Tariffs………………………………………534 14.7 The U.S. Tuna Industry and Japan…………………………………..540 14.8 The Tuna Fleet and Latin American………………………………….542 14.9 The Launch of the Fairtry ……………………………………………...545 xi 14.10 The Law of the Sea and 1958………………………………………547 14.11 The Further Life of MSY……………………………………………..549 Conclusions………………………………………………………………………….555 xii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ATA American Tuna Association CPUE Catch per Unit of Effort CRPA Columbia River Packers Association FAO Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations GATT General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade IATTC Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission ICES International Council for