A further major difference between 

 the two industries lies in the organization 

 of :iew England fishermen and the complete 

 lack of organization in the Atlantic Prov- 

 inces. Union requirements as to lay 

 arrangements, layovers, and broker paj'Tronts 

 tend to make costs on Ifew England trawlers 

 more inflexible. Furthermore, labor is 

 the largest item of cost in this region, 

 and is not very amenable to wage reduction. 

 The Canadian industry, however, insulated 

 from labor organization by law and located 

 in an area of labor surplus, is completely 

 unfettered by such union requirep.ents. 

 Thus, Ca-nadian firms have a great deal of 

 discretion both in regard to prices paid 

 and costs incurred. 



Effect o n Costs of G e ographic 

 and Struct'xral Differences 



The factors outlined above all concur 

 to give the Canadian industry a decided 

 advantage over the New England industry. 

 These advantages are reflected mainly in 

 the much higher landings and lower trip and 

 vessel expenditures of Canadian trawlers. 



1 . Landings 



The greater landings of the Canadian 

 trawler, relative to its New England 

 counterpart, were discussed above. We 

 have noted that the Canadian fleet js 

 closer to the more productive grounds and 

 can make more trips per year than can a 

 New England trawler. It is able to do so 

 not only because of proximity but also 

 because of the absence of mandatory lay- 

 ever requirements. In this connection, 

 (TLoucester owners spec\J.ate that in the 

 absence of the li-day layover requirement 

 betveen trips on ocean perch vessels, they 

 could increase their trip activity to 25 

 trips per year. This i^ould be a substan- 

 tial improvement over their annual activity 

 of 19 trips in each of the years 1956 and 

 1957. Since many large- traiders in Boston 

 in the years 1937 to 19ltl averaged 35 or 

 more trips per year, while today few make 

 more than 30, there is evidence that the 

 layover requirement (3 days on haddock 

 vessels) has also substantially altered 

 their trip activity, 



2, Trip Expenditures 



Structxural differences in the indus- 



tries of Canada and New England may be 

 credited with much of the lower per-trip 

 expenditures of the Canadian trawler and 

 the much higher expenditures of the New 

 England-based trawler. A large part of 

 trip ejq^enditures on New England trawlers 

 represents cash outlays, payable at the 

 conclusion of each trip, for commission 

 fees, wages "of lun^jers," rent of scales, 

 welfare fund contributions, etc. Such 

 payments are avoided by Canadian trawler 

 ovmers, since large integrated owners pay 

 no one a commission fee and make no can- 

 tribution tq a welfare fund. Furthermore, 

 because of the natvire of the integrated 

 operation, the Canadian owner can, and 

 generally does, charge off certain trip 

 expenditxxres to operations other than the 

 trawler itself. 



Another facet of the structvir,al in- 

 fluence on trip expenditures is indicated 

 by the expenditures for fuel, ice, and 

 food on Boston large trawlers and those of 

 Canada, The large-trawlers operating out 

 of Boston engaged exclusively in the 

 Georges - Brovms Banks haddock fishery do 

 not-at least in terms of "days absent per 

 trip,"- suffer from any geographic dis- 

 advantage. Both Boston and Canadian 

 trawlers are absent from port for approxi- 

 mately 9 days. Also, Boston-based large 

 trawlers, of the 200 gross-tons and over 

 class, are generally of smaller gross 

 tonnage and lower engine horsepower than 

 Canadian trawlers of the same classifi- 

 cation. Despite the absence of a geo- 

 graphic disadvantage and their smaller 

 size and lower landings, fuel and ice 

 expenditures of these Boston trawlers 

 equal the fuel and ice expenditures of the 

 irmch larger Canadian Vessels. The fuel 

 and ice expenditures of Boston trawlers of 

 the 150-199 gross tons class are substan- 

 tially above those of Canadian trawlers of 

 the like classification, (table VI-3). 

 This is indicative of the fact that ecoiw 

 omles of scale are available to the large 

 Integrated firm. The substabtially lower 

 per-man food expenditiires of the Canadian 

 trawlers again indicate the advantages of 

 concentrated buying power or the willing- 

 ness of Canadian fishermen to be satisfied 

 ^■dth less expensive food than fishermen of 

 the New England area, (table VI-h)» 



The major cost advantage enjoyed by 

 the Canadian trawler operators is their 



77 



