THE BOTTOM FISHERIES 69 



At the shore plant when fish are to be held in pens before processing, 

 the small quantity of ice unloaded with the fish is depended on to keep 

 the fish cool. 



Several hours may elapse before the filled packages are put in the 

 freezer. It is not unusual for the bottom of the packages to become com- 

 pletely water-soaked during this waiting period. In addition, no ice or 

 mechanical refrigeration is used to cool the fish during this period. 



Ocean Perch 



The ocean perch fishery showed a spectacular increase in importance 

 between 1930 and 1941. During this period landings jumped from 118,000 

 pounds to 145,000,000 pounds, making this species second only to haddock 

 in volume landed in New England. ^-^^ Since 1941 landings have fluctu- 

 ated somewhat. In 1959 136,703,000 pounds of ocean perch were landed, 

 and nationally this species ranked 8th in volume and 13th in value. All 

 of this catch was landed at New England ports, with 55 per cent going 

 to Maine and the remainder to Massachusetts. Ocean perch grow quite 

 slowly, reaching maturity in about 11 years as contrasted with 3 years 

 for haddock. 



Handling at Sea. Otter trawling accounts for all but a very insignifi- 

 cant fraction of the ocean perch landed. Fishing is carried on only during 

 the day since the fish rise off the bottom at night and are impossible 

 to catch with ordinary gear. 



The fish are occasionally sorted by size aboard the vessel and are 

 stowed round (uneviscerated) in ice in the vessel's pens, with about one 

 pound of ice being used for two pounds of fish. As fish become scarcer 

 close to New England, the ocean perch vessels have had to make longer 

 trips. Trips of 21 days' duration are not unusual, and 6 days of this 

 period are spent in voyaging to and from the fishing grounds. 



Handling at the Wharf. Unloading methods vary considerably at dif- 

 ferent processing plants, but in general the fish are shoveled by the 

 lumpers from the vessel's pens into unloading baskets, hoisted out of the 

 hold, and swung over to the wharf. Here they may be weighed in 500- 

 pound lots and conveyed directly into the processing plant, or they may 

 be loaded into a dump truck, the truck-load weighed, and taken to a 

 more distant plant. 



Processing. Most ocean perch are processed the day they are unloaded 

 from the vessel, but occasional gluts will make it necessary for the 

 processor to store the fish in pens at the plant for as long as 18 hours. 



Over 98 per cent of the ocean perch landed is filleted and frozen; the 

 remainder enters the fresh fish trade. Prior to filleting, the fish pass 

 through a rotary scaler and then to a conveyor which carries them to 



