ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE OF THE WORLD'S FISHERIES 223 



outpost in Hawaii and operations beginning in waters farther west. Spectacular 

 increases in catches of tuna and tunahke fishes— yellowfin, albacore, bluefin, skip- 

 jack, bonito, and yellowtail-have resulted in a series of record volumes of raw 

 fish and the canned product. In 1948 all previous totals were surpassed by a catch 

 of 326 million pounds from which 7 million cases of canned tuna were produced. 



Sea herring are caught chiefly in Maine and Alaska, the combined catch in 

 1948 amounting to 348 million pounds as compared with the previous record of 

 310 million pounds in 1947. In Maine the bulk of the catch is canned, 182 million 

 pounds in 1948, along with nearly 58 million pounds of imported herring from 

 Canada, producing a record pack of about 3.3 million cases. Alaska herring, 166 

 million pounds in 1948, is processed into fish meal and oil, except for small 

 quantities that are salted or used as bait. 



Ground fish-cod, haddock, hake, pollock, and cusk-supported the New 

 England fishing industry for years. Cod was taken in the greatest volume until the 

 advent of filleting in the early twenties increased the demand for haddock. The 

 largest recorded catches of cod were 295 million pounds in 1880, of haddock, 

 265 million pounds in 1930. In 1948 the combined domestic catches of cod, 

 haddock, hake, pollock, and cusk on the Atlantic Coast totaled 300 million 

 pounds, of which haddock made up 160 million pounds and cod 73 million 

 pounds. Ground fish are used chiefly in the fresh or frozen market. The amount 

 canned and cured is small, the once great volume of salt fish having long since 

 been superseded by foreign production and imported raw material. 



Landings of rosefish in New England were only 74 thousand pounds in 1929. 

 In 1948 the largest catch in its brief history, 238 mfllion pounds, was greater 

 than that of any other Atlantic Coast species, except menhaden, and it formed 

 the basis for a flourishing trade in fresh and frozen packaged fillets. 



The mackerel fisheries of California utilize the Pacific mackerel and the 

 "jack" mackerel-a member of the jack family-to produce large canned packs. 

 The combined catch of 109 million pounds in 1948 yielded over 1 million cases. 

 The largest catch ever taken was 173 million pounds in 1947 and the greatest 

 pack, 1.5 million cases in the same year. The Atlantic Coast mackerel fishery, 

 carried on from Norfolk, Virginia, north, provides an important fresh and frozen 

 fish product and some canned fish. The 1948 catch of about 45 million pounds was 

 far below the pre-1900 production and the record catch of 179 million pounds 

 in 1884. 



The most important shellfish fishery, both in volume and value, is that for 

 shrimp in the South Atlantic and Gulf States. In recent years the number of fish- 

 ing craft has increased rapidly until it was estimated that about 4,500 trawlers 

 took 175 million pounds of shrimp in 1948. Shrimp are canned, dried, frozen, 

 cooked, and sold fresh, but the trend is toward frozen fresh and frozen cooked 

 products. 



The oyster fishery is of some importance in every seaboard state, except Maine 

 and New Hampshire, and in 1945 was the nation's second most valuable fishery. 

 It is dependent on the eastern oyster, found on the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts, and 

 on the western, or native, and the Pacific oyster, introduced from Japan, which is 

 cultivated on the Pacific Coast. The Atlantic and Gulf Coast production totaled 

 65.4 million pounds of oyster meats in 1948. Most of the yield was marketed fresh 

 in the shell or shucked, frozen shucked, or canned. Pacific Coast production in 



