REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 47 



The limited quantity of grayfish which the canners found it possible 

 to pack on the Atlantic coast having become exhausted, arrangements 

 were made in December for tlie inauguration of grayfish canning on 

 Puget Sound, where the fish are found in numbers in winter as well 

 as in summer. Tlie sahnon canneries of Washington are idle in win- 

 ter, and the owners showed much interest in the project presented to 

 them of being able to keep their plants open when they had formerly 

 been unproductive. One cannery began operations almost immedi- 

 ately and by March, 1917, this had been joined by two or three 

 others, while four or five others had announced their intention to 

 experiment with the fish with the view of entering the business if 

 the industrial conditions warranted it. The entire prospective pack 

 of the first concern was contracted for, and it was stated that one 

 packer had been obliged to refuse an order of 20,000 cases on account 

 of the scarcity of cans. A number of orders for export were received 

 but were declined by the canners in deference to the Bureau's desire 

 first to satisfy the heavy domestic demand. 



In the latter months oi the fiscal year the demand for grayfish con- 

 tinued to increase. Although the canned product had been known 

 to the trade and public only since October, in April, 1917, it was 

 known to be handled by dealers in 128 cities and towns in New York 

 and Pennsylvania alone, and by May the fish was on sale by retailers 

 in 30 States and the District of Columbia. 



With the return of grayfish to the coastal watere of New England 

 in the spring of 1917, canning was resumed in Massachusetts, and 

 there is every indication that the output for the calendar year will be 

 greatly in excess of 1916 and that the fish will henceforth have a 

 market for fishermen and packers. 



The Office of Home Economics of the Department of Agriculture 

 has conducted experiments in feeding canned grayfish to human 

 beings, and has found that 92.8 per cent of the protein is digested as 

 compared with 94.5 per cent in the highest grade of Columbia River 

 salmon, 93.1 per cent in fresh mackerel, and 91.9 per cent in fresh 

 butterfish. Ninety-five per cent of the fats in grayfish were digested 

 as compared with 94.3 per cent in salmon, 95.4 per cent in mackerel, 

 and 89.9 in butterfish. 



Early in the fiscal year the Bureau opened negotiations with the 

 fishery interests of Puget Sound" regarding a campaign to increase the 

 consumption of the so-called ''black cod," a fish of excellent quahty 

 and high food value. In anticipation of the creation of a public de- 

 mand, considerable quantities were placed in the freezers m Seattle 

 and Tacoma during the summer and fall. The fish is not related to 

 the cod family and in the interest of accuracy it was renamed sable- 

 fish, and it began to be exploited mider that name in January, 1917. 

 It immediately found a ready market and moved from the cold 

 storage plants so rapidly that it was determined to defer a more 

 vigorous propaganda untU spring, when it could be caught in larger 

 numbers. In April, display cards and other advertising matter were 

 issued and its excellent qualities were called to the attention of the 

 public through the newspaper and magazine press. As a result, 

 upwards of 2,000,000 pounds of the frozen fish and 1,304,000 poimds 

 in the fresh state were disposed of by the dealers by June 30, and 

 reports at that time inchcated that it was being landed in larger 

 q^uantities by the fishermen of the Pacific Coast States and that a 



