CHAPTER 21 



Uses of Industrial Fish Oils 



Edward H. Gruger, Jr. 



Supply and Composition of Fish Oils 



The sources for industrial fish oils produced in the United States are 

 found in the herring, menhaden, Pacific sardine (pilchard), and tuna 

 industries. Between 1950 and 1959 the average annual production of 

 United States fish oils was distributed as follows : 78 per cent from men- 

 haden, 7.3 per cent from herring, 5.1 per cent from Pacific sardine, 3.1 per 

 cent from tuna and mackerel, and 6.5 per cent from other sources, 

 including whale and sperm oiP^ Excluding fish-liver and whale oils, 

 the annual production of fish oils in the United States, from 1950 to 

 1960, reached a high in 1960 of over 208 million pounds. The low for 

 this period was 118.6 million pounds in 1952. The amount of such fish oils 

 available annually during this period for United States consumption has 

 varied from 33.5 million to 101.0 miUion pounds or from 19 to 67 per cent 

 of the total annual productions. More complete information on this is 

 shown in Table 21.1^2 



Fish oils have not reached maximum industrial use in the United States 

 in recent years because of preconceived ideas, among other things, of con- 

 siderable variation in physical and chemical characteristics. The investi- 

 gation by Simmons'^® points out certain variations in the characteristics 

 of fish oils taken from different geographical locations and from different 

 species during the 1956 and 1957 season. The data shown in Table 21.2 

 was obtained from this work. 



The effect of geographical location of catch for menhaden has been 



260 



