The coastal fisheries for groundfish date back to 1875. 

 Rapid changes have been wrought recently by improvements 

 in fishing gear, by wider markets, and by new techniques 

 in filleting and freezing. Pacific Northwest trawl catches 

 increased from 12 million pounds in 1940 to 140 million in 

 1965 ; catches reached an all-time high of 185 million pounds 

 in 1966. 



During exploratory fishing in the early 1960's (by the 

 Bureau's Seattle Exploratory Fishing and Gear Research 

 Base), large schools of Pacific hake (Mcrlucciiis prodnchis) 

 were discovered; a midwater trawling system was then de- 

 vised for efficient capture. Although not valuable in the 

 United States as a food fish because of its soft, bland flesh, 

 the hake is 15 percent protein, equal in nutritional value to 

 cod, salmon, and beefsteak. Other uses have been found 

 for this previously undesirable scrapfish — animal food, 

 fish meal, oil, and FPC (fish protein concentrate). FPC, 

 which can be produced from many types of fish, has great 

 potential as a protein additive to the diet of the world's 

 undernourished people. 



The commercial hake fishery began in 1965 with a few 

 commercial vessels under BCF charter. In 1966, a modern 

 plant was built at Aberdeen, Wash., to reduce hake to oil 

 and high grade fish meal. But just as the fishery got under- 

 way, a huge Russian fishing fleet appeared off' the Washington 

 coast (fig. 3). 



The Russians, who fished in international waters, took 

 large quantities of hake and ocean perch. The fleet (com- 

 prising more than 100 vessels at times) caught over 286 

 million pounds of Pacific hake and about 22 million pounds 

 of ocean perch. The U.S. fishermen, in their relatively small 

 vessels, were preempted from the better fishing grounds and 

 had trouble finding dense concentrations of hake. 



In 1967, however, the U.S. fishery was more successful. 

 The United States extended its jurisdiction to 12 miles from 

 shore, which gave our fishing boats some area where they 

 could operate unhindered. In 1968, for economic reasons, 

 the United States Pacific hake fishery was nonexistent off"- 

 shore although the Soviets continued to take large quantities. 



The need for scientific information to protect U.S. fishing 

 rights in international negotiations and to use for the ra- 

 tional management of our fisheries has given impetus to 

 our research on groundfish. 



FIGURE .3. -Russian fishing fleets are self-sufficient and op- 

 erate great distances from tfieir home bases. Here a trawler 

 brings its catch to a ship that processes and stores the fish. 



— 3 



