"its role is to be that of an agency whose main function will be the
programming and planning of an economic basis to aid watermen
and others engaged in the seafood industry to earn a better living. "
1 believe it can be said, four years later, that the Department of
Tidewater Fisheries has performed this function ably and effectively.
In that speech, made at the Tidewater Fisheries School of Washington
College, I deplored the fact that oyster production the previous year —
1958 —had sunk to the lowest level since the depression years —to a
"meager 1, 968, 894 bushels. " Well, if that yield was "meager, " let us
consider what has happened since. The production last year — as all
of you know, I am sure — was only 1, 254, 000 bushels, the lowest in
the recorded history of the industry. This trend, of course, is depress-
ing and discouraging, but I am informed, by those who are knowl-
edgeable in the field, that these production figures do not reveal an
accurate picture of the situation today.

By those who are knowledgeable in the field, I mean such experts
as Joseph Manning, the Director of the Department of Tidewater-
Fisheries, and Dr. Eugene Cronin, Director of the Natural Resources
Institute, both of whom are here this evening. They and others advise
me that we have every reason to believe that the bold program which
we initiated during the first year of my administration is beginning
to produce dividends — that the future of oyster production is bright.
This, I might emphasize, is not just wishful thinking. Oyster produc-
tion for September of this year, for example, was up 23 per cent above
the production of September, 1962. All the other data at hand, I am
informed, are equally encouraging.

The program we have in Maryland to strengthen and enliven the
seafood industry I consider to be a cooperative effort of government,
on the one hand, and on the other, of the industry itself — the tongers,
the crabbers, the dredgers, the clammers, the shuckers, the packers,
the dealers and all the others engaged in the production and market-
ing of seafood. Your State government acknowledges its responsibili-
ties in the field, our Department of Tidewater Fisheries, the Depart-
ment of Economic Development, the Natural Resources Institute of
the University of Maryland and other State agencies are engaged in
a diligent effort to restore an industry which is of vital economic
importance to Maryland. This organization — the Chesapeake Bay
Seafood Industry Association — bespeaks the interests and concern of
the industry in our project.

I have been deeply impressed by the caliber of men who have ac-
cepted the industry's responsibility in this field, and I hope that every

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