THE BOTTOM FISHERIES 73 



with ocean perch and whiting, greater care is taken by the fishermen in 

 icing and stowing the catch aboard the vessel. The pens are shelved at 

 about four-foot intervals, and the ratio of ice to fish closely approaches 

 the 1 to 2 figure necessary to cool fish to, and maintain them at, the 

 temperature of melting ice. 



Handling at the Wharf. Unloading operations are similar to those used 

 for other species of fish. At some plants the fish are iced in boxes for 

 holding prior to processing while in other plants storage pens may be 

 used. 



Processing. Large quantities of the flounders landed on the Atlantic 

 Coast are shipped whole in ice to the fresh fish markets. The only process- 

 ing involved in this operation is that of shoveling about 25 pounds of 

 ice and 100 pounds of fish into wooden boxes and nailing on the cover. 



All filleting is done by hand as no machine has yet been developed 

 capable of doing this job. Scaling machines are not generally used since 

 the majority of plants skin the fillets from both the dark and light sides 

 of the fish. Previous to the adoption of efficient skinning machines many 

 packers skinned only the dark side of the fish. 



About 75 per cent of the flounder fillets produced on the Atlantic 

 Coast are marketed in the unfrozen state. Packing procedures are essen- 

 tially the same as for fresh haddock fillets described above. On the Pacific 

 Coast, only 45 per cent of the fillets are marketed unfrozen. 



On the Atlantic Coast, fillets to be frozen are brine-dipped before 

 packing. Some processors claim that varying sensitivity to salt in the 

 fillets is found in different market areas with the result that they vary 

 the brine strength slightly in the range of 10 to 14° salinometer to suit 

 a particular market. On the Pacific Coast, brining is ordinarily omitted. 



Packing procedures are very similar to those described for haddock. 

 For the 5 and 10-pound sizes, some packers use a volume pack as is 

 described for whiting. Freezing and storage procedures are also very 

 similar to those used for haddock. 



Quality Considerations. There appear to be no quality considerations 

 peculiar only to the flounder and sole fishery, with exception of the 

 occurrence of a jellied condition found in the fillets of soles taken from 

 certain deep water areas off the Pacific Coast and sporadically from 

 various areas on the Atlantic Coast. The individual packers are relied 

 on to cull out the jellied fillets. 



Miscellaneous 



There are numerous other species of bottom-dwelling fish, the most 

 important of these being listed in order of decreasing economic impor- 

 tance in Table 5.3. With the exception of lingcod, most of the catch of 



