CHAPTER 15 



Transportation of Fishery Products 



by O. C. Young 



Principal Research Engineer, Pacific Fisheries 

 Experimental Station, Vancouver, B. C. 



Introduction 



Since the turn of the century man's knowledge of the sciences has tremendously 

 increased, resulting in a great advance in the general standard of living. In this 

 age man has become largely independent of temperature, climate, and season, 

 not only as regards his physical comforts, but also his daily menu. Therefore, the 

 traveller of today expects orange juice for breakfast, fish for luncheon and dinner, 

 and fresh fruits and nuts at the finish of the meal no matter w^here he may be, 

 or what the time of year. These not unreasonable expectations stem from the 

 great strides made in food technology in the past several decades. Indeed, we are 

 now accustomed to the colorful and attractive displays of fresh and frozen foods 

 in the modern food markets; if we do not see what we want, we ask for it with 

 some degree of petulance and the feeling that the market is not quite complete. 

 We often overlook the difficulties that must be overcome to grant us our desires 

 in "off" seasons. 



The seasonal nature of fishery operations makes the supply of all types through- 

 out the year rather difficult. Habits of the fish, vagaries of the elements, and 

 national and international regulations impose tremendous variations in the 

 "catch" of many species, and these, in turn, induce processing, handling, and 

 storage difficulties. Added to these, man's propensity for dispersing his popula- 

 tions over wide areas causes serious transportation problems. These difficulties 

 have been and still are the subject of much thought and experimentation, and 

 a complete account of all the work done on them is beyond the scope of this 

 volume. However, in this chapter the present means of transporting commercial 

 fishery products by sea, land, and air are briefly considered. Special emphasis 

 will be placed on the requirements of the products and an attempt made to 

 show in what ways the present facihties are lacking in some of the requirements 

 and how they might be improved. 



Before considering the existing transportation facilities for fish, however, it 

 might be profitable to consider briefly the requirements for ideal storage of both 

 unfrozen and frozen fishery products, since technically, at least, transportation 

 of these products is only modified storage. An examination of the recommenda- 

 tions of fishery technologists shows that there are three main requirements for the 

 ideal storage of fresh (unfrozen) fishery products: (1) A constant temperature 

 just slightly above the initial freezing point of the product to reduce bacterial and 

 enzymic activity to a minimum; (2) an atmosphere saturated with water vapor, 



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