ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE OF THE WORLD'S FISHERIES 217 



men totaled an estimated $325,000,000, the highest in history, as compared with 

 only $96,532,000 in 1939 and a 10-year average of about $212,393,000. 



Direct employment was also at a peak in 1948 (Table 39). About 160,000 

 fishermen, aided by 4,000 transporters, landed the catch. In 4,000 plants on 

 shore 110,000 workers processed, packed, and distributed fishery products. The 

 fishing industry also accounted for the indirect employment of an estimated 

 300,000 persons in allied industries, such as gear manufacture, shipbuilding, 

 manufacture of processing equipment, and service industries supplying food, 

 fuel, etc. 



About 85,000 craft, the largest and most efi^ective fleet ever used, were engaged 

 in the fisheries. They included 8,000 documented fishing vessels of 5 net tons or 

 over, 40,000 motorboats, 35,000 other boats, 1,300 documented transporting 

 vessels, and 700 transporting motorboats. From 1937 to 1944 less than 400 fishing 

 craft were documented annually. A rapid increase, which amounted to 1,300 

 vessels in 1947, declined slightly to about 1,200 in 1948 (Table 40). Purse seines 



Table 39. Fishing Industry of the United States antd Alaska in Certain Years. 



^ Partly estimated. " Data not available. 



Source: U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Anderson and Power, 1949; Anon., 1949e; Power, 1946). 



Table 40. Vessels Obtaining Their First Documents as Fishing Craft, United 

 States and Alaska, 1936-1948.* 



* Partly estimated. 



Source: U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Anderson and Power, 1949; Power, 1946] 



