b U.S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



TECHNOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS 



Never before in the liistory of the fishery industry of this country has 

 there been greater need for economy in production methods and for 

 the fullest utilization of valuable products from the material at hand. 

 Under present conditions of depressed business, losses or leakages in 

 factory operation, which in more prosperous times seemed relatively 

 unimportant, now represent very frequently the margin between 

 profit and loss. For this reason there is greater need for the applica- 

 tion of the best technological and engineering knowledge available to 

 problems of manufacture, preservation, and marketing of fishery 

 products. This is essential to make the most of the raw material 

 available, to eliminate waste, and to bring factory operation to the 

 highest point of efficiency. With this objective in mind, the techno- 

 logical research has followed the general lines of studies of methods of 

 manufacture, preservation, storage, and marketing of both the pri- 

 mary products of the fisheries for food and the by-products for animal 

 nutrition; biochemical tests to determine the food value of fishery 

 products; the development of fishing gear; and experiments in develop- 

 ing chemical treatments for fishing nets to lengthen their usefulness. 

 This has involved the application of the sciences of chemistry, en- 

 gineering, bacteriology, and general technology to the solution of these 

 problems. The discussion in the following pages is a summary of the 

 accomplishments along these lines which have been made during the 

 past year. 



The accomplishments of the technological staff during recent years 

 have resulted in notable contributions of outstanding value to both 

 American fisheries and American agriculture. Among these achieve- 

 ments is the development by the Division's technologists of domestic 

 fish oils of liigh vitamin potency, essential for use in human and animal 

 nutrition, freeing this country from its almost complete dependence 

 on foreign sources of fish oils of high vitamin potency. 



Since, contrary to popular notion, baby chicks, rather than babies, 

 consume most of these vitamin-bearing fish oils, this has meant a great 

 deal to American agriculture. Information from reliable sources has 

 indicated that, after taking into consideration all of the factors, the 

 farmer is paying from one half to one third of the former price for 

 these oils for animal feeding. In this connection, it should be borne 

 in mind that fish oils are used extensively in mixed feeds as a source 

 of the vitamin D carrier or ingredient. Recently, large pharmaceu- 

 tical houses have turned to domestic sources of vitamin-bearing fish 

 oils for human nutrition and medicinal use. This means that the 

 entire public eventually is going to benefit from these discoveries by 

 the technologists of this Division. Furthermore, the fisheries have 

 benefited in that higher markets and better prices have been obtained 

 for their products; and such inter-related or auxiliary industries, de- 

 pending on these sources of raw material for tlieir finished products, 

 such as the pharmaceutical industry and the manufacturers of mixed 

 feeds, also have benefited materially in that they have been made 

 independent of foreign sources of raw material, and in that they have 

 been able to get their raw material at more favorable prices, in many 

 instances. In other words, all of these American industries have bene- 

 fited, either directly or indirectly, from the dift'erential in prices which 

 is a direct result of the fish oil investigations. 



