REPORT OF THE FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 71 



tion and distribution wliieh w ill bring the best results to artificial prop- 

 agation. Facts relating to these questions can only be gained through 

 patient ol)servation and carcruUy planned experimentation. 



FISH REDUCTION. 



Wherever fisheries are carried on extensive waste usually results. 

 Many unmarketable fishes are unavoidably caught and frequently even 

 the desirable varieties are caught in such quantities they cannot be 

 absorbed by the markets before spoiling. As an illustrajtion, the 

 mackerel boats fishing out of a port in P^ngland recently brought in so 

 many mackerel in one day that the fresh markets and salteries would 

 not take all of them and 500,000 perfectly good mackerel were taken to 

 sea and dumped. Besides such losses resulting from occasional ovei-- 

 catches there is a loss of at least fifty per cent in the cleaning of fish 

 which go to the markets, salteries or canneries. In many places this 

 waste is dumped at sea and no effort is made to convert it into useful 

 products such as fish meal and oil. It is evident that even in England 

 where fishing has been carried on for centuries fish waste and offal is 

 not being utilized as it should. In the salmon fisheries of the north 

 Pacific, many millions of pounds of fish offal are annually dumped into 

 t!ie sea. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research of Canada 

 estimates that in that country $12,000,000 worth of fish offal is wasted 

 each year. 



In California the demand for fish meal for poultry or stock food or 

 as a fertilizer for fruit trees, and the demand for fish oil to be used in 

 the manufacture of fruits and other products has resulted in almost 

 every pound of fish waste being utilized. California easily surpasses all 

 other states in the utilization of its fish waste. A few years ago when 

 our fisheries began to expand, reduction plants were established at the 

 principal fishing centers and the fish offal and waste was hauled to them 

 by barge or truck. There was a demand for small, compact and sani- 

 tary reduction plants which could be run in connection with the 

 cannery. After considerable experimenting these were finally perfected 

 and several different makes were placed on the market by manufactur- 

 ers in this state. ]\Iost of our fish canneries are now equipped with 

 lliese plants and in them the fish offal is handled quickly before putri- 

 fication sets in and the fish meal thus iiianufaetureil is an excellent 

 poultry or stock food. 



The independent reduetiun phuits wliicli depended on fish olVal fur 

 their supply of raw material have lost by this and some have had to 

 close. Fish meal and oil have sold at such good prices and sardines 

 can be caught so cheaply that there have been times when it was as pro- 

 fitable to convert the fish into meal and oil as into canned food. This 

 resulted in large quantities of sardines being used in the reduction 



