Over 10 percent of the fleet carry airplanes for spotting bait and 

 schools of tuna. The vessels are equipped with radar, loran, radio 

 direction finders j automatic pilots j depth-sounding devices, radio 

 telephones, and evaporators for converting salt water to fresh water. 

 The vessels, manned by 10 to 14 men^, have a cruising range of as 

 much as 10,000 miles or more. Because of their size, bait-carrying 

 facilities, refrigeration equipment and the navigation aids carried, 

 tuna clippers are the most expensive commercial fishing craft oper- 

 ated in the world. Individual vessels have cost nearly $700,000o 

 The catch of tuna clippers consists largely of skipjack and yellowfin. 

 In addition, a considerable portion of the bonito and yellowtail 

 catch is made by these vessels. Of all fishing craft these are par- 

 ticularly important with respect to National Security for use in war- 

 time patrol and transport work for the armed forces. 



TUNA CANNING PROCE SSES AMD TYPES OF PACKS 



;Vhile many mechanical advances have been made in canning tuna, 

 the basic procedures followed hare baen essentially th^ same since 

 the inception of the domestic industry in Calif oiiiia in 1903 o On 

 receipt of tuna at the cannery, the fresh or thawed frozen fish are 

 eviscerated, washed, and placed in wire mesh baskets in which they 

 are cooked in steam retorts. After cooking and subsequent ccjljing^ 

 the tuna are cleaned and the four large longitudinal muscles, call- 

 ed loins, are prepared for canning. These are cut to can sise and 

 packed in the cans by hand or mechanical means. Oil and salt are 

 added after which the cans are sealed and processed. In the early 

 days of the industry only olive oil was used in the canninjg process. 

 However, by 1913, cotton seed oil had replaced olive o:i iri most 

 packs except for the tuna canned "tonno style" in which olive oil 

 is still used. More recently, soybean oil has become the principal 

 oil used in the regular pack. 



Because of the low margin of profit at which tuna operators 

 operated in the early years of the industry, efforts were made to 

 obtain the maximum yield from the tuna processed. As early as 1914j 

 several companies packed a combination of light and dark neat tunaj 

 however, the product did not become popular. In recent years, the 

 packing of a mixture of light and dark meat has been resumed, and 

 the product is available to consumers at a considerably lower price 

 than the light-meat flake and grated packs. Other types of canned 

 tuna marketed in the early days of the industry included kippered 

 tuna and a product known as "potted tuna", which consisted of chunks 

 of tuna mixed with potatoes amd carrots, A considerable quantity of 

 this product was packed, but it was eventually discontinued. 



31 



