6 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 



the total losses and the losses of quality in transit, so that the con- 

 sumer may be offered a more attractive article at a competitive price, 

 and that will stabilize the business generally. A reduction in the 

 fisherman's overhead expense for nets will make the business more 

 profitable and stable at its foundation and help to compensate for 

 the arduous character of the fisherman's calling. We are concerned 

 here, not so much with the immediate profits of the fish business, how 

 large they are, and who gets them — important as these questions are— 

 but with the more significant fact that one of our large natural re- 

 sources stands poorly developed, because of waste, excessive overhead 

 expenses, and difficulty in reaching the great inland markets with a 

 first-class product. The waste can not be avoided, the overhead 

 expenses can not be reduced, and the distant markets can not be 

 reached except through scientific technological investigations. These 

 have been conducted as far as possible during the year vnth such 

 funds and personnel as were available, as will now be discussed more 

 particularly. 



BRINE FREEZING. 



In the report of this division for 1921 mention was made of the 

 status of brme freezing at that time; it was pointed out that in prin- 

 ciple brine freezing seemed to have received sufficient test and ap- 

 proval by various scientific investigators and that the chief problem 

 ahead was the engineering one of constructing a plant that would 

 freeze fish on a large commercial scale, with a minimum of labor and 

 expense and in a sufficiently simple way to be practicable in the ordi- 

 nary fish freezer. The requirements of such a plant are: (1) It should 

 apply brine at the lowest possible temperature to the entire surface 

 of the fish; (2) the brine should move at the highest practicable 

 speed past the surfaces of the fish; (3) the fish should be held straight 

 and trim during the freezinp;; (4) operation should preferably be 

 continuous and automatic; (5) the other necessar}'' operations of 

 washing and glazing should be performed, if possible, without addi- 

 tional handling. The prospects of meeting these requirements seem 

 food in an experimental plant that has been constructed in the 

 'ishery Products Laboratory in Washington. Fish are suspended 

 on a horizontal bar and while so suspended are conveyed by mechani- 

 cal means successsively through a shower of water for washing, 

 through a violent shower or rainstorm of brine at a very low tempera- 

 ture for freezing, and again through a shower of water that washes 

 off the brine and applies a glaze. The fish emerge from the apparatus 

 frozen and glazed, ready for storage or shipment. During 1922 the 

 plant was constructed and to some extent tested. Its operating 

 characteristics appear promising, but it will need to be given more 

 thorough trial before definite conclusions can be reached. 



PRESERVATION OF NETS. 



Mention was made in the report of this division for 1921 of the work 

 undertaken on the preservation of fish nets. Extensive experiments 

 brought out interesting and useful data concerning many preserva- 

 tives in common use, and also concerning materials not hitherto used 



