Depre ciation ! — The general accounting practice is to depreciate 

 the hulls in 10 years and the engines in 6. One company, though, claimed 

 to have depreciated the hulls in 30 years and the engines in 10, taking 

 an average of 20 years for hull and engine combined. 



Miscel laneous ;— The largest of the items grouped under "Miscel- 

 laneous" consists of cooperative charges. See section on Cooperatives 

 for breakdown on these charges. 



Comparison east and west coasts 



For comparing shrimp-production costs between the east and west 

 coasts of Mexico, the calendar year 195^ was chosen for the east coast 

 and the 195U-55 season for the west coast. From the siunmarized and 

 averaged data in table 22, it appears that the east coast is able to pro- 

 duce headless shrimp for about k cents a pound less than the west coast. 

 Probably the advantage to the east coast is even greater because, in the 

 small sample of boats from which reasonably complete records were studied, 

 repair costs of two of the east-coast boats seemed to be \musually heavy. 

 Of course, this difference in production cost is compensated for by higher 

 prices received for the shrimp catch on the west coast. 



TABLE 22. —AVERAGE FISHING COSTS FOR SHRIMP 

 CAUGHT ON EAST AND WEST COASTS OF MEXICO 



(In cents per pound, headless basis) 



East coast. West coast 

 I^^em 195i^ 1/ season 1951i-55 2/ 



Trip expense 13. 5U 17.83 



Boat expense 17.95 17.60 



Total fishing 

 cost 31. U9 35.U3 



Season catch, 

 in pounds 63,000 66,000 



1/ Average of data from 3 vessels in table 19. 

 2/ Average of data from 3 vessels in table 21. 



Most of the difference in cost can be explained by the crew 

 wages: crew earnings on the west coast were about twice those on the 

 east coast. Food costs were also about twice as much, and miscellaneous 

 costs, mostly cooperative charges, were more than twice as much as on the 

 east coast. Ice costs on the east coast, however, were more than twice 

 as much as on the west coast. Fuel and oil, insurance, and depreciation 

 costs on the two coasts were about the same. 



lOit 



