ECONOMICS OF THE FISHERIES 



347 



TABLE 8 



Calculation of What the Retail Selling Price of Fish (1940) Would Be 



if Fisherman Received Same Percentage of Retail Value as 



Farmer Did for Pork (in 1934-35) 



for comparison from newspaper advertisements. The indications, however, 

 are that the edible part of even the cheaper fish costs as much as sausage, 

 chopped beef, shoulder of Iamb, etc., and when full allowance is made for 

 edible portions, are equal in cost to the medium-priced cuts, and the more 

 popular and choice fishes cost as much as choice cuts of meat. Some data 

 bearing on this question is to be found in Sherman et al. (1944), showing 

 the relative costs of fish and competitive foods to domestic households in 

 1942. 



Distribution or Accessibility of Fish to the Consuming Public. One of the 

 most important determinants of the quantity of fish consumed in national 

 or regional dietaries is accessibility or opportunity of consumers to buy it. 

 National average per capita calculations in a country as large as ours have 

 only a limited significance. Actually, the products of the whole world's 

 fisheries are consumed largely in small areas at high per capita rates, and 

 very little elsewhere. In the United States, the distribution has been and 

 still is extremely "spotty," though slightly less so now than it was thirty 

 years ago. New York City is estimated to consume more than 20 per cent 

 of the entire national production of food fish marketed fresh or frozen. 

 No recent data on local per capita consumption of fish have come to our 

 attention. During the 1920's the Bureau of Fisheries made marketing 

 surveys in a number of cities, indicating, in edible portions, 32 pounds per 

 capita in New York, 18 in Jacksonville, 11 in Atlanta and Pittsburgh, 9 in 

 St. Louis and 6 in Louisville.'* If fish were equally accessible and attractively 



24. See (New York) Fiedler and Matthews, Rept. Coram. Fish, for 1925, (Doc. 996) ; (St. 

 Louis) Fiedler, Rept. Comm. Fish., 1927 (Doc. 1026); (Atlanta) Fiedler, Rept. Comm. Fish., 

 1928 (Doc. 1039) ; (Jacksonville) Fiedler, Rept. Comm. Fish., 1928 (Doc. 1036) ; (Louisville) 

 Hopkinson, Bur. Fish. Econ. Circ. No. 50; (Pittsburgh) Econ. Circ. No. 52. 



