THE BOTTOM FISHERIES 71 



The one-pound retail packages of fillets are filled, overwrapped, and 

 and frozen as described for haddock. In packing the 5 and 10-pound 

 cartons of ocean perch fillets, the fillets may be 'Volume packed" and 

 check weighed at the end of the packing line or, more often, preweighed 

 at the beginning of the line as described under packing H&G whiting. 

 The large packages are not generally overwrapped but are stacked on 



Figure 5.2. Escalator conveyor carrying ocean perch fillets out of 

 brine tank. (F. T. Piskur, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.) 



pallets for transfer to a central freezing plant where they are frozen in 

 shelf coil (sharp) freezers or blast freezers. 



Quality Considerations. Aboard the vessels quality may be lost when 

 insufficient ice is used on the fish to cool them to 32°F and maintain 

 them at this temperature for the duration of the trip. Occasionally, 

 vessels have to lay-to during stormy weather. When fishing is resumed, 

 much of the ice on the first-caught fish may have disappeared, and there 

 is insufficient ice aboard to properly preserve the last-caught fish. Thus, 

 both the first and last-caught fish may be of low quality when landed. 



