Labor earnings on the subsidized long- 

 liners and draggers are not readily com- 

 parable to those derived from other occu- 

 pations due to the seasonal nature of fish- 

 ing operations. As shown in table Il-lli, 

 on a per week worked basis, such fisher- 

 men's earnings are much better than those 

 in other jobs. On an overall basis, if 

 fishermen were dependent on fisheries in- 

 come alone, they would in most cases be 

 wo]rs3 off. Their actual incomes, however, 

 from all sources cannot be determined. 



It would appear, then, that deep-sea 

 fishermen in Nova Scotia neither earn 

 significantly more than workers in alter- 

 native jobs, nor do their incomes reflect 

 appreciably the hazardous nature of their 

 duties. This is not surprising in view of 

 the large reserve fishing labor force, the 

 centuries-old tradition of going to sea, 

 the lack of readily available alternative 

 jobs, the strong bargaining power of vessel 

 owners , the numbers of Newfoundlanders from 

 low income backgrounds manning the tratrlers 

 in both their own province and in Nova 

 Scotia, and the only recent positive en- 

 couragement given by the government to in- 

 creasing fishermen productivity through 

 capital investment. 



The low incomes of fishermen in thp 

 Atlantic Provinces finds a parallel in the 

 New England area where in several areas, 

 real incomes have begun to lag behind those 

 in other jobs. Whei^as in Canada much of 

 the reason for the relatively low incomes 

 lies in the fishery labor surplus, in New 

 England the attractiveness of better jobs 

 combined with lowered landings arid catch 

 values offer approximate explanations. Of 

 particular importance, however, is the fact 

 that the earnings of fishermen in Canada 

 are on an upward trend whereas in New Eng- 

 land the long-nm trend, in real terms, has 

 been a declining one. 



The Market for Groundf ish 



For centuries Canadian groundfish was 

 processed and marketed only as salted or 

 dried codfish. Principal markets were in 

 the low-income, warm-climated Mediterra- 

 nean- and Caribbean countries. Other spe- 

 cies were not exploited since they could 

 not be preserved as well as cod. The fresh 

 fish market was local in character and 



therefore limited in size. 



The development in New England of 

 filleting and quick-freezing techniques 

 made it possible for Canadians to take 

 advantage of the growing United States 

 market for frozen groundfish fillets. The 

 demand during World War II for fishery 

 products facilitated large-scale expansion 

 of Canadian frozen fillet production. Dur- 

 ing this period a filleting and freezing 

 industry was first establish^ed in Newfound- 

 land. While a considerable amount of the 

 Atlantic Coast production of fillets dur- 

 ing World War*ri was marketed in the Brit- 

 ish Isles, the principal sales area has al- 

 ways been the United States. Canadian 

 ■shipments of fillets to the United States 

 went up U33 percent between 1939 and 19U5 

 and have increased over 1,000 percent from 

 1939 to 1958. The Canadian Atlantic pro- 

 ducticnof fillets and blocks increased by 

 125 percent from 65 million pounds in I9U9 

 to lh7 million in 1957. 



The salt fish market was prosperous 

 during World War II. Since then, there has 

 been a clear shift from fish curing to 

 processing in other forms. The salt fish 

 market would have been less attractive even 

 without the burgeoning frozen market. 

 Canadian saltf ish jLs produced in an area 

 with muah higher costs and living standards 

 than the underdeveloped countries that form 

 its market. There are also retail ceiling 

 prices in the major Caribbean market, and 

 exchange barriers which set a limit on the 

 prices the saltf ish producers can obtain. 

 Table 11-13 indicates the decline of salted 

 codfish production in Newfoundland in re- 

 cent years. Newfoundland production in 



1957 was half of what it was in 1935, and 



1958 saw a drop of 35 percent from 1957 

 figures . 



The development of the frozen fillet 

 market meant more than a shift from dressed 

 and salted codfish production to processing 

 in other forms. It involved also exploita- 

 tion of haddock and ocean perch in increas- 

 ing quantities. This is seen in the growth 

 of landings of these species in recent 

 years J over the period 19U8-1957, haddock 

 landings in the Atlantic Provinces more 

 than doubled, going from 57 million pounds 

 to 132 million pounds; ocean perch landings 

 showed a phenomenal increase, going from 



29 



