10 American Fisheries Society 



important industry has begun to receive the interest of bacterio- 

 logists, chemists and technologists which it so richly deserves. 

 In the canning of fishery products, present practices are greatly 

 in need of careful study and standardization. Much of that which 

 is now put into tin and glass can undoubtedly be improved upon 

 and the markets of still other fishery products enlarged, with the 

 development of suitable canning methods. Difficulties are 

 encountered in the canning of crabs, shrimp, lobsters, sea crayfish, 

 barracuda, rockfishes and sharks. The preparation of special 

 products, such as caviar, the roe and buckroe of fishes, chowders, 

 fish balls, fish loaf, fish sausage, and fish pastes, and their preserva- 

 tion in tin or glass are fruitful subjects for study. 



The utilization of the waste products of the fisheries, the 

 unutilized products of the sea, presents an alluring field for investi- 

 gation and promises important additions to our resources. Mention 

 may be made of the seaweeds, hydroids and possibly bryozoans, 

 starfishes, fish scales, hides and membranes, fish waste and waste 

 fish. 



The annual production of fish scrap and meal in the United 

 States will approximate 60,000 tons. During the first five months 

 of this year over 32 millions of pounds of sardines were used for 

 fertilizer at San Pedro, Calif., alone. While the practice of 

 converting food fishes into oil and scrap or meal should be dis- 

 couraged, it is quite within reason to believe that if all the waste, 

 including that of the Alaskan salmon industry, were fully employed, 

 our annual output might be doubled. Progress is retarded for 

 the lack of suitable, low-priced machinery, capable of handling 

 small quantities of waste economically. The annual waste of 

 salmon offal has been estimated as representing the loss of several 

 millions of dollars of marketable products. Because of its isola- 

 tion, the Alaskan field presents a distinct problem in itself. 



Fish scrap and meal under present methods of manufacture 

 contain percentages of fat which are undesirable in fertilizers and 

 objectionable in meal, compelling the exercise of greater care in 

 feeding. There is at present no extraction apparatus which is at 

 the same time economical and practical on a small scale and very 

 few of the larger plants have felt able to install extraction 

 machinerv. 



