PRODUCTION 



During the past 12 years the harvesting of 

 industrial bottomfish by trawls has increased 

 greatly. The petfood industry's need for fish 

 first stimulated the bottomfish fishery. By 

 1954 two canneries in Mississippi processed 

 more than 12,000 tone of fish (figure 2) and 

 contributed measurably to a record pack of 

 petfood in the United States. The Mississippi 

 petfood industry continued to expand with the 

 addition of two plants and increased its pro- 

 duction to nearly 26,000 tons in 1957. Canning 

 of bottomfish for petfood expanded rapidly in 

 1958 and was primarily responsible for the 

 60-percent increase in total bottomfish pro- 

 duction. The remainder of the fish was reduced 

 to meal for poultry food or was frozen for 

 mink food and crab bait. Total harvest de- 

 creased slightlyin 1 960-6 1 , but increased again 

 in 1962 to a record catch of 48,000 tons with 

 an estimated landed value of $1.6 million. A 

 substantial decline occurred in 1963 when 

 total production did not exceed 40,000 tons. 

 Increased use of tuna, chicken, beef, and pork 

 byproducts in canned petfoods was primarily 

 responsible for a decrease in fish demand. 

 Of the total catch processed during the 5 years, 

 83 percent was canned as petfood, while the 

 remainder was frozen for mink food and crab 

 bait, and reduced into fish meal for poultry 

 feed. 



FISHING EFFORT AND LANDINGS, 

 1959-63 



Source of Data and Methods of Compilation 



Analyses of fishing effort were based on the 

 number of tows and average duration of tow 

 obtained from interviews with fishermen and 

 from logbooks issued to vessel captains. Rec- 

 ords maintained by processing plants also 

 were used, particularly information on the 

 total number of landings (trips) and amount of 

 fish landed. The number of trips from which 

 fishing effort information was obtained rep- 

 resented about 20 percent of the total landings 

 made by all trawlers in the industrial bottom- 

 fish fishery during the 5 years. Landings for 

 reduction to fish meal at Apalachicola, Fla., 

 in 1959 and 1960 were excluded from this study 

 because effort data were not collected. 



As already noted, the width of trawls used 

 in the fishery varied appreciably. It was, 

 therefore, desirable in calculating total effort 

 to employ a standard-size trawl. The net 

 most commonly used during the study period, 

 and hence the one considered to have been 

 the "standard" trawl, had a mouth width of 

 65 feet. Effort reported for vessels using 

 larger or smaller nets was subsequently con- 

 verted to standard-net units through its multi- 

 plication by the ratio of net width involved to 

 that of the standard net. 



1952 1954 1956 1958 I960 1962 



Year 



Figure 2. — Annual production by the industrial bottomfish fishery 

 in the north-central Gulf of Mexico, 1952-63. 



