The number of cooperatives that fished for shrimp represented 

 only 58 percent of all fishery cooperatives, but these shrimp coopera- 

 tives had 9i; percent of the total membership. 



The west coast had 7? percent of the shrimp cooperatives and 

 61; percent of the total membership. Less than half of the fishermen 

 associated with shrimp cooperatives are employed full-time in the 

 shrimp fishery. The remainder fish part-time for other species or are 

 engaged part-time in agricultural pursuits. 



There are actually more fishermen than shown by the coopera- 

 tives' records. This is particularly true of part-time fishermen, who 

 as a rule are not listed on the cooperatives' registers. Between full- 

 time and part-time fishermen there are probably at least 9,000 on the 

 west coast, distributed as follows: 3,500 aboard trawlers, ii,500 "canoa" 

 fishermen, and 1,000 working the "tapos." On the east coast there are 

 about 2,200 fishermen, 1,100 of which work full time aboard trawlers. 



The cooperatives work under contracts approved by the Ministries 

 of Economy and Marine. The trawler fleet on tlie east coast has worked on 

 an annual contract. There has been some interest in developing a 2-year 

 contract. The west-coast trawler fleet is operating on a 2-year contract 

 that expired in September 1956. 



The west coast contract calls for a payment of P/l,780 36/ 

 per metric ton (2,20k.6 pounds) of shrimp tails when the trip catcH is 

 2 tons or less and P/l,8l0 per ton for trips with more than 2 tons. The 

 money is distributed as follows: 



Pesos per United States 



metric ton Distribution cents per pound 



920 Grew shares 3.U 



220 Severance tax .8 



l50 Banco Fomento Cooperativo .5 



300 Cooperativo for local overhead 1.1 



50 Cooperativo federation overhead .2 



ilO Cooperativo confederation overhead .1 



100 Crew insurance ,h 



1,780 Total 6.5 



30 Cooperative local overhead 



1,810 Grand total 6.6 



36/ The peso since its devaluation ;s.pril 19, 19SU, has been equivalent 

 To about 8 cents United States currency. All further references to 

 dollars and cents in this section refer to United States currency. 



88 



