FISHERY PRODUCTS IN EVERYDAY LIFE 35 



The Italians possess the greatest skill in this trade, 

 which is centered in Naples, Genoa, Torre del Greco, 

 Leghorn, and Trapani. 



Fish and Fishery Products 



Although the number and importance of the vege- 

 table and mineral products of the sea is considerable, 

 their economic value is overshadowed by the products 

 of the commercial fisheries. Fish are marvelously 

 abundant ; approximately nineteen thousand distinct 

 species have been catalogued. Some of these fish are 

 exceedingly numerous, as, for example, the herring, 

 menhaden, and pilchards. Approximately a billion 

 menhaden are caught by American fishermen annu- 

 ally. The herring fisheries of the North Sea have 

 furnished enormous quantities of fish for over five 

 hundred years and still over a billion pounds of 

 these fish are caught each year. Relatively few of the 

 large number of species of marine fishes are utilized 

 to any considerable extent. Only about a hundred 

 species are caught in appreciable quantities by 

 American fishermen. 



The most important use of fish is as food for man. 

 Fish is a food, high in protein, which may be pre- 

 pared for the table in a great variety of ways and 

 gives a welcome relief from a steady meat diet. FisE 

 are preserved by freezing, canning, salting, pickling, 

 smoking, drying, and even fermenting. 



Canning is the most important method of pre- 

 serving fish in America. In 1926, 7,488,620 cases 

 of salmon, valued at about $50,000,000, were canned. 



