APPENDIX III APPENDIX III 
Products and processing 
There are 49 Pacific coast processing plants which proc- 
ess fresh groundfish for fillets and steaks. California has 
21 such plants, Oregon 15, Washington 13, and Alaska 0. 
The groundfish market in Washington and Oregon is a 
fresh fish market. In these States, fish are landed at proc- 
essing plants where they are filleted and either sold on the 
local fresh fish market or shipped out of State. Most of 
the shipped fish are air freighted to major metropolitan 
areas such as Los Angeles and San Francisco. An Oregon in- 
dustry spokesman stated that as much as 75 to 85 percent of 
their catch is air freighted out of State. Processors in 
Washington and Oregon freeze only those fish which are 
spoiling. 
During the winter months, most of the groundfish caught 
in California are sold on the fresh fish market. At this 
time of year dealers can generally take all.that are caught. 
In the summer, because of the large quantities of groundfish 
caught, the market is glutted, and Northern California 
processors have to freeze about 70 percent of the catch. 
Processors south of San Francisco sell a fresh fish product 
most of the year. 
Groundfishing in Alaska is an insignificant industry 
due to the economics of the fishery. Currently, most of the 
groundfish caught are usually caught incidental to shrimp, 
which are a primary target for Alaskan trawlers. Much of the 
incidentally caught groundfish is thrown away or is reduced 
to fishmeal. 
pair 3 
