The net used is a beam trawl made up of a steel tube about 2i; 

 to 28 feet long which forms the upper part of the opening. At the ends 

 of the tube, triangles made of flat steel are attached to form the sides 

 of the net. Sledge runners are attached to the bases of the triangles to 

 facilitate the movement of the net on the sea bottom. The lower part of 

 the net is formed by a ground rope with small wooden rollers. The upper 

 part of the opening extends over the groiind rope so as to catch shrimp 

 stirred up from the sea floor. The net is about h$ feet long. 



Since the end of World V/ar II, the governments of both the 

 Federal Republic and the coastal states have helped the fishermen to 

 improve the productive capacity of their vessels by granting loans at 

 low rates of interest. Marshall Plan counterpart funds were also used 

 to build larger and faster boats, and to renew and improve fishing gear. 



It is believed that it will be possible to increase the output 

 of edible shrimp so that the whole fishing operation for feed and edible 

 shrimp will be more profitable. Edible shrimp represents about 12 percent 

 of the total catch. 



In 1955 about 8? percent of the catch, or 82.2 million pounds, 

 was driea and used as a protein supplement in poultry feed. The remaining 

 13 percent, or about 12. Ii million pounds, was used for human consumption. 

 About 1.8 million pounds of this quantity were sold unpeeled to domestic 

 consumers and U&^ thousand pounds were exported mainly to France and 

 England. The balance of about 10.1 million pounds was peeled, yielding 

 about 3-| million pounds of shrimp meats. Of this quantity, approximately 

 110 thousand pounds were exported in cans of which about 10 to l5 thousand 

 pounds were sent to the United States. An increasing volume of shrimp 

 meat is being exported to England. The export of heavily salted unpeeled 

 shrimp to France has also been increasing. 



The catch of shrimp is sorted aboard the boat largely by hand 

 screens, although mechanical screens are coming into use. Shrimp for 

 human consumption is cooked in boilers aboard the vessel. The cooked 

 shrimp is cooled and packed in baskets for shipment to the processing 

 plants . 



Feed shrimp is landed unprocessed and delivered to the drying 

 plants, of which 36 are operated by processing firms and 50 by fishermen. 



The unpeeled shrinp are steamed and subsequently dried on wire 

 screens by a stream of forced hot air. The yield is about 25 percent of 

 the wet shrimp. The end product may be stored for more than a year with- 

 out deterioration. 



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