204 EIGHTH PACIFIC SCIENCE CONGRESS 



British Columbian and other Canadian fisheries, if encouraged by an 

 increased desire on the part of Canadians to eat more fish per capita per 

 annum, could meet this incentive and still continue to supply Canada's 

 export markets with the kinds of Canadian fish products which the 

 peoples of some other countries appear to appreciate more than do 

 Canadians themselves. Why is there this lack of incentive of Canadians 

 to appreciate and eat their own fish to a greater extent? 



Apart from economic considerations such as the living standards of 

 certain classes of Canada's population, and the present still-increasing 

 costs of labour and materials that contribute to the retail cost not only 

 of fish products but of other foods as well, some of the reasons for 

 Canada's low fish consumption are: 



(a) Living standards, including those for food, are relatively high; 

 a great variety of raw and processed foods are available for competing 

 with fish from the standpoint of the Canadian's purse and palate. Fish 

 must be of high quality that will enjoy the confidence of the consumer 

 before it will compete more successfully with other foods, particularly 

 other animal products such as meat, fowl, and dairy products. 



(b) Unfortunately, some past experiences of the Canadian adult 

 generation with quality of fish products, particularly fresh and frozen, 

 have not been too happy, and these impressions have been heightened 

 by reminiscences of the previous generation concerning still unhappier 

 experiences. Even in present-day Canadian and American popular 

 literature including comic strips and cartoons, one sees the expression 

 "something fishy about that" as synonymous with an undesirable state 

 of affairs. "To draw a red herring across a trail" is still used figuratively 

 to express the original literal idea that a somewhat rancid salted herring 

 would effectively baffle bloodhounds tracking a scent. A cartoon or 

 comic strip character carrying a parcel of fish (usually with wavy lines 

 representing odour arising from it) almost always encounters some em- 

 barrassing situation, often resulting in the fish eventually reposing in a 

 garbage can. Such allusions do not enhance the public's desire for fish. 

 Unlike the enthusiasm of the ancients already mentioned, reference to 

 fish is practically never used in America in a euphemistic sense. Meat, 

 on the other hand, is frequently used in a laudatory and even euphem- 

 istic manner, e.g., "the meat of a subject" for the essence or truth of 

 the subject; the word "meat" for the edible portion of even a vegetable 

 product, such as "nut meats." Fish flesh is very seldom referred to as 

 "meat." 



(c) Fishery products in Canada, with the exception of canned 

 salmon, canned herring and dry salt herring from British Columbia, 

 and a few other products of the fisheries from the Central and Atlantic 



