108 



U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



shrimp for immediate use but which also, in the seasons of the heavy 

 liauls. hermetically seal the shrimp in the various styles of containers. 

 The former have very little money invested in the plants while the 

 latter vary in the equipment according to the class of the work car- 

 ried on at the cannery. The canneries often use their plants to pre- 

 serve vegetables, oysters, and other sea foods. The utilization of 

 shrimp waste constitutes a different problem with these two types 

 of handlers. 



Iridcpendenf deahrn. — Usually a dozen or more independent deal- 

 ers are located in buildings close together, the buildings consisting 

 of nothing more than warehouses wdierein the shrimp are headed, 

 iced, and barreled ; where the nets are stored and mended ; and where 

 also is located a little office. On the east coast a small group, gen- 

 erally Portuguese or Norwegians, in very infrequent cases Ameri- 

 cans, group together and pool their catches for shipment from the 



FiGUKE 1. — Group of prawn boats belonging to fisliermen supplying small sluimi) 



holders 



same plant. Figure 1 shows a view of shrimp boats massed at the 

 dock at one of the southern water fronts. These belong to inde- 

 ]5endent fishermen who suppl}' shrimp to a group of independent 

 plants. Control of shrimping practices needs to be exercised in 

 such cases, owing to the laxity that these men take toward maintain- 

 ing a degree of cleanliness on the outside of the buildings. Waste 

 shrimp left by the receding tide is almost always found underneath 

 the buildings and on the banks and at the sides of such plants, and 

 seldom efforts are made to wash them away. The easily putrefiable 

 shrimp waste soon gives off very offensive odors which attract the 

 flies. The amount of waste available from each of these plants is 

 not considerable, varying with the season and the catch, but at all 

 times odors are j^resent. A pooling of interests among these men 

 to utilize the wastes could be practiced and carried out without addi- 

 tional help or probably with the assistance of a trained additional 



