(2 of 2)
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.