338 



MARINE FISHERIES OF NORTH CAROLINA 



TABLE 6 

 United States per Capita Consumption of Fish and Meat 



* Based on adjusted statistics in the Section of this Survey on Quantitative Economics. Weights 

 are as landed or as usually reported by Fish & Wildlife Service. Cod, haddock, etc., gutted; 

 mollusks, net edible weights. Production of Mississippi River system considered to be 45 million 

 pounds in all years. Not adjusted for exports and imports. 



t Data from Sherr, Power, Kahn et. al. (1948). Adjusted for exports and imports. 



t Bureau of Agricultural Economics. 



or sporadic advertising, nor (as seems to be so often assumed), by merely- 

 catching more of this, or that, or all fish. Any increase in the share of fish in 

 the dietary (at the expense and against the competition of other items 

 therein) can be effected only insofar as the determinants of demand are 

 changed favorably for fish. 



Our concern here is therefore with an examination of the determinants of 

 demand, what they are, how they operate, and to what extent they can be 

 influenced and how. 



Factors which Affect Demand for and Distribution of Fish. In the United 

 States, including Alaska and the Mississippi River system, for the period 

 1936-40 inclusive, the annual average total production of fish (4.362 billion 

 pounds) was approximately a third (31.4 per cent) fresh and frozen, a third 

 (30.6 per cent) canned, a little more than a third (35.5 per cent) made into 

 by-products (fish meal, etc.), or used for- bait, and 2.5 per cent cured, 

 smoked, salted, etc. Those which are canned cease to be fish in the trade 

 sense and become canned goods ; they pass through a system of brokers and 



