510 tr. S; BtTREAU OF FISHERIES 



Australia, etc. "When properly handled before canning and thor- 

 onghly sterilized, canned fish become available for shipment into any 

 part of the world and can be enjoyed by people where fresh fish are 

 not available. The loss in using canned fish is very slight, and as 

 the cooking has already been done the product can be eaten cold, as 

 a salad, if so desired. 



There is a growing popularity in the Orient and South Sea Islands 

 for canned fish, not only among the white residents but also among 

 the natives. The coolies and workers on rubber and sugar planta- 

 tions find canned salmon njid canned sardines very valuable foods, 

 and the same is true in many parts of the United States where canned 

 fish are the only kind of fish available. It is hard to see how great 

 industrial developments such as the building of railroads, lumber 

 camps, mining, oil drilling, etc., in difficultly accessible places could 

 be carried on without the use of canned products like fish, meat, 

 fruits, vegetables, and milk. Not only has the conquest of the 

 Tropics been made possible by the discovery of the connection be- 

 tween the mosquito and yellow fever, but also by the great develop- 

 ment and utilization of canned and sterilized foods, among which 

 fish and shellfish are always popular and, as we have seen, provide 

 the essential foodstuff — protein — at a reasonable cost. 



Next in economic importance to the canning of sea foods comes the 

 freezing of fish. This is a very important industry both in the 

 United States and abroad. While freezing fish has some disadvan- 

 tages, compared with canning, it has certain advantages — namely, 

 the flavor and appearance of the fish are practically unchanged by 

 the freezing process. At times the public has shown an unjustifiable 

 suspicion of frozen fish. The assumption has been that fish that 

 can not be sold fresh are frozen, and that, furthermore, during the 

 freezing process and storage there is considerable deterioration wliich 

 affects the food value and palatability of the product. It was in 

 order to study this question most carefully that Clark and Almy 

 (1920) undertook a long series of experiments and investigations on 

 the behavior of Atlantic coast weakfish and bluefish during freezing 

 and after storage. They analyzed groups of fish to determine the 

 normal composition when fresh (before freezing) and then analyzed 

 other individuals of the same lots of fish which had been frozen and 

 stored for periods of time up to and over 27 months. As a matter 

 of fact, frozen fish are not kept any longer than eight months or a 

 year at the most, because the normal cycle — first, of scarcity and then 

 of plenty — usually requires a year to be completed. There is no 

 economic reason whatever for carrying frozen fish over into the 

 season when the fresh fish are being obtained and frozen for a coming 

 period of scarcity. In Table 6, taken from a publication of Clark 

 and Almy (1920), the composition of weakfish and bluefish before 

 and after freezing and storing is given. 



