FISHERMEN AND GEAR 



There are about 200 full-time shrimp fishermen in Ecuador, 

 including captains, engineers, and hands j about half of them are 

 foreigners — mostly Panamanians with a scattering of United States and 

 Portuguese citizens. When the fishery began in 195ii there were no 

 experienced Ecuadorean fishermen, and all technical personnel were 

 foreign. The persons who are developing the Ecuadorean shrimp fishery 

 are mainly United States citizens who had previous experience in Panama, 

 The tendency has been towards increasing the percentage of local fisher- 

 men as rapidly as they can be trained. There is no backlog of personnel, 

 however, and the training has to be done with persons who have no back- 

 ground in fishing or in handling boats or motors. 



Port clearance, which requires a crew list, is normally de- 

 manded for each trip. The captains sometimes cannot round up their 

 registered complement, and at the last minute have to fill in with whom- 

 ever they can get or delay their departures another day. They are sub- 

 ject to penalty if the crew list is not in agreement with the actual 

 crew aboard. 



The crews generally are five men to a boat, a "patron" or 

 captain, an engineer, and three hands. They are paid on the basis of 

 the catch. Payments vary greatly amongst the boat ovmers. It is general 

 practice, though, for the boat owner to pay for all expenses except food. 

 The payments to the crew vary between s/l.IiO (about 8 cents) 18/ per pound 

 of tails plus s/20 (about $1,11;) for each trip (the total amount is paid 

 the captain, who pays his crew and the food bill and splits the profits 

 with the crew out of the receipts for the catch) and s/2 (about 11 cents) 

 per pound less the food bill. This seems to average out so that the 

 captain gets s/l (about 6 cents) per pound of tails, the engineer s/O.UO 

 (about 2 cents) and each hand betvfeen s/0.l5 and s/0.20 (about eight- 

 tenths of a cent to 1 cent). 



On an annual catch of 100,000 pounds of tails this would amount 

 to about $5,700 for the captain, $2,280 for the engineer, and $850 to 

 $l,lUO for each hand. This represents gross revenue. The cost of food 

 would have to be deducted before net income could be determined. 



18/ The Ecuadorean sucre (written s/) in October 1955 was s/l7.55 to 

 3/17.60 to the United States dollar. One sucre was worth abcoit 

 U. S. 5.7 cents. 



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