

Figure 7.--An otter trawl used in commercial fishing. 



Silver hake are usually taken commer- 

 cially during daylight hours along the in- 

 shore waters from Maine to New Jersey 

 and offshore on Georges Bank. The fishing 

 fleet consists mostly of small draggers 

 from 35 to 50 feet long and a few larger 

 vessels up to 90 feet long. Silver hake 

 are also caught with pound nets, but the 

 greatest quantities are landed by the 

 draggers which tow a large cone of netting, 

 called an otter trawl, along the ocean 

 bottom. 



Silver hake are also caught by sports 

 fishermen with rod and reel. Along the 

 New England coast, the silver hake move 

 into the bays and harbors in the fall in 

 search of small bait fish. It is at this time 

 that the sportsmen make good catches of 

 this species at night off the local docks 

 and piers. Along the Middle Atlantic coast, 

 party boats are also used during the spring 

 months to catch silver hake, cod, and 

 ling (red hake) a few miles offshore. 



The freshly caught fish are iced at sea 

 and landed at the ports usually whole, but 

 in some cases with the heads and entrails 

 removed. The fish destined for human food 

 are unloaded onto conveyors that lead to 

 automatic scaling, washing, and heading 

 machines. The final preparation of the fish 

 is done by workers who trim and load the 



packages by hand. The packages are then 

 machine wrapped, put on trays, and frozen 



h & G 



Headed 



Scaled 



Eviscerated 



Washed 



Cleaned 



Unloaded 



Weighed 



Sorted 



Unmarketable 



Dehydrating Plant 



Fillets 



Scaled 



Filleted 



Brine washed 



Packed 



Wrapped 



2 



Packed 



Wrapped —' 



1/ 1-1/2 pound overwrapped, 5 and 10 pound packages. 

 2/ 1 pound overwrapped. 



Figure 8. --Diagram showing the general steps of processing 

 silver hake. 



