FISHERY INDUSTRIES OF THE UNITED STATES, 1927 405 



have been learned first hand. Manufacturers of equipment were told 

 of opportunities to introduce their products to the fishing industries 

 with mutual profit, and the bureau itself tested equipment when 

 advisable and practicable. A temporary field laboratory was estab- 

 lished at Reedville, Va., mainly in order to study the problems of the 

 menhaden and by-products industries. 



Many of the bureau's technologists have left the service since last 

 year. Nearly all of them have taken positions in the fishery indus- 

 tries, hence they are not lost to this field and can continue to help its 

 progress. The bureau has had to train new men (which seems to be 

 one of the ways in which to help the fisheries) and therefore its 

 progress has been retarded somewhat this year. Nevertheless, a 

 great deal of work has been done, as is indicated in the following 

 paragraphs. 



Net preservation. — Experience in recent years has established the 

 fact that no single net preservative can be applied successfidly to all 

 forms of gear. For this reason the past year's experiments were 

 directed toward determining the best treatment for pound nets 

 fished in salt water. Samples of twine treated with nearly 100 

 different preservative mixtures were exposed at the Beaufort (N. C.) 

 station last year, and test panels containing 10 of the most promising 

 treatments were placed in commercial fishing localities. As a result 

 of these tests the formula for a satisfactory preservative was developed 

 and released. This costs approximately one-third as much as the 

 best commercial treatment previously available and consists of 

 cuprous and mercuric oxides and tar dissolved in water-gas tar oil. 

 No other solvent has proved quite as efficacious as this, which is 

 cheap though not always easily available. 



By-products. — The reduction of fish into oil and scrap, or meal, is 

 a large industry of long standing, yet it still presents many formidable 

 problems. In the case of the menhaden industry the situation is 

 particularly acute, due to the maladjustment of capacities in the 

 plants. This is the outgrowth of an oversized organization to take 

 care of previous periods of abundant supply. As a result, when the 

 menhaden catch falls below a certain rather high level, as it has in 

 recent years, the factories operate at a loss. The remedy is readjust- 

 ment to present conditions, and our technologists have devoted much 

 attention to the problem by showing where appropriate machinery 

 can be installed and advocating the detection of excessive expendi- 

 tures by the use of simple cost systems. The production of better 

 meal and oil through care in operation of equipment has been demon- 

 strated and will help to remedy the situation. These points were 

 stressed because they promised immediate relief, whereas the investi- 

 gations of a more technical nature, begun in 1927, though showing 

 progress, can not be concluded in so short a time. 



Another problem concerns the salvaging of small quantities of 

 market waste, unmarketable or trash fish, and the waste produced 

 on shipboard. Various angles of it were studied during the past year, 

 especially the vacuum process of handling the waste resulting from 

 filleting operations. Data on hand are not sufficiently complete to 

 offer a solution of the problem. This and other experiments in the 

 same field are being continued. 



The field that holds the most promising future in the by-products, 

 industry lies in producing a fish meal suitable for feeding purposes. 



