158 tr. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



ration, and a better knowledge of what can be done to promote 

 conservation. 



ECONOMIC AND MARKETING INVESTIGATIONS 



There is a constant demand upon the Division of Fishery Industries 

 for studies of the economics of the commercial fisheries, including 

 investigations having application to the various functions of the 

 marketing of fishery commodities. It has been possible to under- 

 take only a limited program of long-time or continuing studies of 

 this kind with available personnel and funds during recent years. It 

 was necessary to further curtail work of this type during the past 

 year due to the large volume of time required of the regular staff in 

 connection with the planning and organizing of the Market News 

 Service, to be discussed later in this report. However, as is customary 

 each year, many short-time economic studies were made in order to 

 satisfy the urgent demands placed upon the Division. Such studies 

 most frequently are conducted preliminary to or closely associated 

 with administrative activities of the Bureau and usually are not 

 published. Results of some of these studies which were made during 

 the past year are discussed briefly in the following paragraphs. 



SURPIUS-FISH SITUATION 



A study of the surplus-fish situation was made by the staff of the 

 Division during March, and the findings were presented on March 

 29, 1938, by the Chief of the Division at the hearings before the 

 Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries of the House of 

 Representatives on H. R. 9765 and S. 3595 relating to the purchase 

 and distribution of products of the fishery industry. The study made 

 in the Division developed the following information: 



Frozen and cured fish. — As of March 15, 1938, the holdings of 

 frozen fishery products in cold-storage warehouses in the United 

 States amounted to 45,700,000 pounds. This is 13,200,000 pounds 

 in excess of the normal or 5-year average of the holdings as of March 

 15 and 5,900,000 pounds less than the holdings as of Alarch 15, 1937. 

 On March 15, 1937, the holdings were 22,371,000 pounds above 

 normal, or 5-year average as of that date. Thus, the excess holdings 

 this year on March 15 over the 5-year average are 9,100,000 pounds 

 less than the holdings as of March 15, 1937, over the 5-year average, 

 at that time. Under congressional authority in 1937, the Federal 

 Surplus Commodities Corporation purchased a little over 12,000,000 

 pounds of fishery products (most of which was frozen) at a cost of 

 about $621,000. 



The excess holdings as of March 15, 1938, over the 5-year average 

 as of this date, were made up principally of dressed and filleted cod, 

 haddock, and pollock, and shellfish (mostly shrimp), sablefish, rose- 

 fish, salmon (mostly fall and pink varieties) and halibut. On March 

 15, 1937, the excess over the 5-year average as of that date was 

 accounted for mainly by the large holdings of whiting, various species 

 of groundfish (cod, haddock, pollock, etc.), and rosefish. 



On March 15, 1938, the holdings of cured herring amounted to 

 13,200,000 pounds, or about 4,200,000 pounds less than on the same 

 date a year ago, but about 2,500,000 pounds more than the 5-year 

 average. On March 15, 1937, the holdings of cured herring were 



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