Commercial Shark Fishing in the Caribbean Area 59 



SECTION VII 



SHARKS AS A SOURCE OF FISH MEAL FOR POULTRY AND STOCK 

 AND AS A SOURCE OF FERTILIZER 



Part 1. Fish Meal 



Fish meal is now in very great demand. It is an ex- 

 tremely valuable source of protein for feeding stock. At 

 one time people were afraid to use it because they were 

 afraid that it would give a "fishy" flavor to the meat, 

 milk and eggs. We now know that this is not true. Of 

 course, if you feed enormous quantities of the material 

 to animals, this "fishy" flavor may appear, but since 

 fish meal is such a concentrated source of protein, it 

 should be used sparingly anyway. 8 



Fish meal can be made from the parts of the shark 

 (and other fish) which are unsuitable for other purposes, 

 and the general scheme for preparing it is very simple. 

 Absolutely fresh scrap meat, offal and bones of the shark 

 are boiled in water to cook the flesh and get rid of the 

 oil. The cooked scrap is then pressed to remove the rest 

 of the water and oil. Next it is dried over a fire, taking 

 care to avoid scorching, and lastly, the dried material is 

 ground up to a coarse powder. To carry this process 

 out, a few pieces of simple equipment are necessary. It 

 will now be explained how you can make these pieces 

 of equipment simply and cheaply with materials at 

 present available to you. These pieces of equipment are 

 (a) a heater, (b) a boiler, (c) a press, (d) a dryer, and 

 (e) a grinder. 



(a) Heater and (b) Boiler. (Figure 15) 

 You can make the heater and boiler very easily out of 

 a 40 to 50-gallon steel drum. To make the heater cut 



8 Fish meal can be used as feed in the following amounts: 

 Cattle — 2 pounds per day for every 1,000 pounds live weight. 

 Pigs — 1/4 to 1/2 pound per day according to weight. 

 Sheep — 1/10 to 1/5 pound per day for every 100 pounds live weight. 

 Poultry — not more than 10% of total ration for hens, and not more than 

 5% of total for chicks. 



For further details consult your Agricultural Department. 



