32 



COMMERCIAL FISHEEIES REVIEW 



Vol. 28, No. 8 



a hatchery source, weighing 3 to 5 pounds, 

 quickly caught and killed adult alewives, but 

 did not swallow them. The lake trout readily 

 ate freshly-thawed chunks of chubs (bloaters), 

 but refused similar pieces of alewives. Es- 

 sentially the same preference for bloaters 

 was shown when the chubs and alewives were 

 fed in freshly ground "soft pellet" form. 



Reservoir Research: Three trap nets were 

 fished during May 1966 in the Mobridge area 

 of South Dakota and catches were good. Some 

 400 fish were caught per trap day, compared 

 with 193 in the spring of 1964 and 166 in the 

 spring of 1965. That was an increase of 33 

 percent by numbers and 10 percent by weight 

 over high catches of previous years. More 

 catches would have been possible except high 

 winds reduced the frequency of lifts. Catch 

 composition and relative species abundance 

 showed little change over previous years al- 

 though crappie and burbot were more abun- 

 dant. Buffalofish of the 1962 year-class com- 

 prised about 75 percent of the total weight of 

 fish caught. About 2,000 buffalofish of the 

 1962 year-class were tagged in the Mobridge 

 area. Biological samples were routinely col- 

 lected from all species caught in trap nets. 



Commercial fishermen removed 101,000 

 pounds of fish during May --a decrease of 10 

 percent below the catch made during the same 

 period a year earlier. Fishing effort was 

 confined primarily to the embayments of the 

 Moreau and Grand Rivers. Thirty percent of 

 the buffalofish catch in numbers was of the 

 1962 year-class. 



Lake Erie Research : The first major bio- 

 logical collection of sheepshead was made 

 during Mayinwestern Lake Erie. Some 1,500 

 fish (1.5 tons) were taken in a single trap net 

 lift and the total catch was processed for bio- 

 logical data. 



The Bureau's research vessel Musky 11 

 conducted routine operations in the western 

 basin, servicing recording thermographs and 

 sediment collectors. The annual spring trawl 

 sampling in East Harbor was completed to 

 determine the state of juvenile fish popula- 

 tions. 



Lake Superior Research : Another of the 

 Bureau's research vessels, Siscowet, oper- 

 ated in the Apostle Islands area during the 

 month determining the abundance and distri- 

 bution of lake trout. A total of 911 lake trout 

 was caught, of which 99 percent were fin- 



marked fish. The abundance of lake trout was 

 generally higher than for the same period a 

 year earlier. The lake trout catch records 

 of the assessment fishermen in the State of 

 Michigan waters of Lake Superior for the 

 month of April showed improvement over the 

 previous year. 



Industrial Fishery Products 



U.S. DEMAND FOR FISH MEAL IN 1965: 



Domestic demand for fish meal has been 

 increasing for some years along with the fast 

 development in the United States of the poultry 

 and hog industries. With world production in 

 1965 somewhat below 1964, and a strongworld 

 demand, fish meal prices soared to record 

 levels. As a result of increased prices of 

 fish meal relative to prices of other high- 

 protein feed ingredients during 1965, maxi- 

 mum domestic use of fish meal in poultry and 

 animal rations was not realized. 



Since the broiler industry uses about 70-75 

 percent of the United States fish meal produc- 

 tion and imports, that industry is the best de- 

 mand indicator for fish meal. During 1965, 

 the U. S. broiler industry continued to grow 

 largely because red meat production was 

 down about 4 percent. As a result, red meat 

 prices increased considerably during the year. 

 Because of a short production period, the 

 broiler industry was able to increase output 

 fast in response to high prices, and was thus 

 able to benefit by lower red meat production. 



Dollar! P«r Ton 



,•..•'•■"" 



1965^ 



,=L 



1963-<' 



Fig. 1 - Average monthly meohaden meal prices, 1963-65. 



While U. S. broiler production, and also 

 the potential demand for fish meal increased 

 in 1965, the utilization of fish meal did not 

 increase because of (1) lower world supplies. 



