44 



to the uncertainty regarding the U.S. herring quota and the over- fishing of 

 this stock, investment in the processing sector has been slow. With low 

 unit values and large volumes a capital intensive, rather specialized 

 fishery is expected both in harvest and processing phases. 



Currently 80 percent of the U.S. herring landings in the Northwest 

 Atlantic are caught within the 12 mile limit, and due to water temperature 

 and/or distance to port, refrigeration is not necessary. To utilize the 

 herring resource, and particularly catch the fish in the fall when the fat 

 content is the highest, fishing further offshore is necessary. Since icing 

 is economically prohibitive when fishing on a 3 cent per pound fish, trawlers 

 must have refrigerated seawater storage or offload catches into carrier 

 vessels equipped with refrigerated seawater storage. Midwater trawling has 

 proven to be the most efficient harvesting method for herring in New England 

 waters. However, the U.S. fishermen are not advanced in this technology. 



If the United States herring catch approached the current U.S. quota, 

 the vessels would most likely be put on quotas due to lack of processing 

 capacity. It would seem, however, that the herring industry could be a good 

 investment market, and that the U.S. share of the resource, therefore, should 

 rapidly increase. 



(iii) Whiting and hake 



Due to a decline in the North Atlantic groundfish stocks, the United 

 States has increasingly turned to importation of fish blocks from Japan. The 

 raw material for these is the Alaska pollock. Thus, whether there is a 

 potential for utilizing the stocks of whiting (white hake) and red hake for 

 blocks depends largely on decisions made regarding Japanese fishing for 

 pollock in West Coast U.S. waters. 



