Pacific Coast Fishery Resources. 



the East, where the preparation of fish 

 scrap and oil from nonedible species is an 

 old and important industry, large plants 

 have been established for the rendering of 

 the fish. On this coast, where nonedible 

 species are rare, fish offal has been the 

 usual source of supply, and as the pack- 

 ing establishments are generally scattered 

 widely large plants could not be utilized, 

 owing to the heavy expense of bringing the 

 offal such long distances. As a result a 

 small plant, capable of handling the refuse 

 from a plant packing from 50,000 to 

 100,000 cases, was needed, and this is not 

 yet available at a reasonable cost. 



During the last two years more atten- 

 tion has> been devoted to the manufacture 

 of fish meal than to that of fertilizer. 

 For this work the freshest scrap is em- 

 ployed in the process. Most manufac- 

 turers sell the fish meal to others, who 

 prepare poultry and cattle feed by mixing 

 it with other ingredients. So much care 

 is used in preparing the fish meal, and so 

 palatable a product is produced, that it 

 is only a question of time when the prod- 

 uct will be used for human food as well 

 as for animals. 



Both the eggs and melt of the salmon 

 could also be worked up into marketable 

 products if the proper attention was given 

 to the matter, thus increasing our food 

 resources by some millions of pounds. 



MOLLUSKS. 



OYSTERS The oyster industry of the 

 Pacific coast, which should be one of the 

 best in the country, has been in a languish- 

 ing condition for some years. In Cali- 

 fornia, where it was once an important 

 industry, it has been on the down grade 

 for some years, due mainly to the many 

 polluting agencies at work. In Oregon 

 but little effort has been put forth in the 

 past to increase the state's natural re- 

 sources of this valuable bivalve. 



In Washington much intelligent effort 

 has been put forth by the growers to solve 

 the many problems (most of which are 

 peculiar to this coast) which have con- 

 fronted them and impeded their efforts, 

 with the happy result that the industry is 

 now rapidly attaining to a prominent 

 place amongst the state's fishery resources. 

 The system of diking the beds, thus pre- 

 venting the possibility of the oysters being 

 killed by a freeze coincident with a low 

 tide, has had more to do with the preserva- 

 tion and increase of the industry in Wash- 

 ington than any other one thing. 



Almost from the inception of the in- 

 dustry we have had to depend for our 

 supplies of eastern oysters upon yearly 

 shipments of seed oysters from the east 



coast, as for many years the eastern 

 oyster, when transplanted to this coast, 

 did not breed. Several years ago, how- 

 ever, it was discovered that the eastern 

 oysters had begun breeding in Willapa 

 Harbor, and efforts are now being put 

 forth by the State Fish and Oyster Com- 

 mission of Washington to transplant this 

 hardy variety ta other waters of the 

 state, which, if it is successful, will result 

 in greatly increasing the production while 

 at the same time reducing the cost very 

 materially. 



The native oyster industry is also in 

 a rather languishing condition, and needs 

 vigorous aid from both the federal and 

 state governments in order to put it upon 

 a proper footing. The production of both 

 eastern and native oysters could easily be 

 quadrupled if the proper aid were extended 

 to the industry. 



MUSSELS All along the Pacific coast 

 are to be found immense beds of several 

 species of mussels, most of them so situ- 

 ated that there is practically no danger of 

 contamination from any source. For 

 many years mussels in the shell have 

 been a common sight in the leading fish 

 markets of the coast, and more particu- 

 larly in San Francisco and Seattle, but 

 they have never come into general use as 

 a food product elsewhere. The flesh of the 

 mussel is orange colored, and, unlike the 

 oyster, in cooking does not shrivel up. 



In developing a demand for mussels the 

 principal line of expansion will undoubt- 

 edly be in the canning of them. Several 

 years ago a small cannery at Smith River, 

 in northern California, put up several 

 experimental packs, but owing to the lack 

 of capital for publicity work, the business 

 languished, and upon the death of the 

 owner a few months ago ceased alto- 

 gether. In this condition they were far 

 superior to the canned cove oysters of 

 the East. 



There are many ways in which both 

 the fresh and canned mussels may be 

 prepared for the table, the best collection 

 of such recipes being issued by the U. S. 

 Bureau of Fisheries as Economic Circular 

 No. 12, "!Sea mussels : What they are 

 and how to cook them, with eighteen 

 recipes." 



Mussels are also valuable for the pro- 

 duction of fertilizer, the so-called "mussel 

 mud" constituting one of the best fertil- 

 izers known. It is found in places where 

 the mussel beds are exposed to constantly 

 depositing silt, which slowly destroys the 

 mollusks and buries them beneath their 

 offspring. 



CLAMS The canning of razor clams 

 has become an established and important 



