52 



COMMERCIAL FISHERIES REVIEW 



Vol. 28, No. 9 



Ecuador (Contd.): 



little is known of their distribution. The Na- 

 tional Fisheries Institute has discovered what 

 appear tobe abundant concentrations of a large 

 bright red shrimp similar to the Gulf of Mex- 

 ico royal-red shrimp, but the shrimp are lo- 

 cated some 500 meters (1,640 feet) deep, well 

 beyond the fishing depth capacity of any Ec- 

 uadorean shrimp vessel. Development of new 

 shrimp resources is necessary to expand the 

 shrimp industry as the present populations of 

 the white and titi shrimp are being fished to 

 capacity. 



Preliminary estimates place the tuna catch 

 in 1965 at about 20,100 metric tons, valuedat 

 US$2,734,000. The tuna catch has averaged 

 about 21,000 metric tons annually since 1961. 

 Similar to shrimp, most of the tuna exported 

 is destined for the United States market; the 

 amount of frozen whole tuna purchased by the 

 United States in 1965 was 5,000 tons. 



About 95 percent of the Ecuadorean tuna 

 catch consists of bonito, caught with poles, 

 bait, and barbless hooks in one -day opera- 

 tions. There are only 4 purse seiners in the 

 Ecuadorean fleet. Any major increase in the 

 tuna catch will require more modern vessels 

 with refrigeration facilities. Presently, tuna 

 vessels leave Manta dailyand do not gobeyond 

 6 hours from port. The majority of the tuna 

 catch is taken from April through July when the 

 bonito migrate near to the Ecuadorean coast. 



In early 1966, various firms announced 

 intentions that will result in further invest- 

 ment in the tuna and shrimp fisheries of Ec- 

 uador. One subsidiary of a United States 

 firm, not yet established, will install a tuna- 

 freezing plant in Manta and will ship all of 

 its tuna to a canning plant in Puerto Rico for 

 processing. Another subsidiary United States 

 firm, already established and canning about 

 half of its tuna production in Ecuador, is 

 planning expansion. A local shrimp packing 

 firm was also entering an expansion phase. 

 (U.S. Embassy, Quito, May 27, 1966, and 

 U. S. Embassy, Guayaquil, July 10, 1966.) 



French Guiana 



SHRIMP INDUSTRY TRENDS: 



The total shrimp catch of two shrimp 

 companies operating in French Guiana with 



Fig. 1 - Typical Florida shrimp trawler fishing for one of the two 

 U.S. -controlled shrimp companies in French Guiana. 



U.S. capital and management increased to 

 about 1,600 metric tons in 1965, valued at a- 

 bout US$3.2 million. Production in 1964 was 

 1,369 tons. One firm accounted for about 

 1,200 tons and appears to have solved the 

 management problems that plagued it initially. 

 This firm operated 29 U. S. -registered trawl- 

 ers last year and employed 150 full-time 

 workers, including trawler captains. The 

 fleet will expand to 39 vessels in 1966, some 

 of which were already in operation in May 

 1966. The purchase of 10 additional trawlers 

 is planned for 1967. 



Fig. 2 - Shore facilities of one of the two shrimp companies in 

 French Guiana operating with U.S. capital and management. 

 At left, packing and freezing plant, officesj at right, ice plant. 



a. 



I iiiliiiailiiTM tn 



Li4^|p|ip!,||!^,!r.««f«» ;«| JSrStS??'^*?^''^ 



Fig. 3 - Dock as seen from the plant in figure 2. Machine shop 

 for fleet at right. Icing and unloading facilities at left. 



The second firna, now reorganized, pro- 

 duced only 400 metric tons of shrimp last 

 year. Although the land-based facilities are 

 capable of processing the shrimp catch of 50 

 vessels, in the reorganization its fleet of 30 

 trawlers was reduced to 12. 



