FISHERIES NEWS BULLETIN Allnlster: Published Monthly by the Department of Fisheries, Deputy Mtntster Hon. J. E. MICHAUD, M.P. Ottawa, Canada W. A. FOUND

Vol. IX NOVEMBER, 1937 No. 97 re GAIN OF OVER $2,400,000 IN FISHERY EXPORTS IN FIRST NINE MONTHS OF '37 MAKE EXPORT SALE 40 TONS DOGFISH LIVERS Thirteen Per Cent Betterment Over Showing for Like Period of Last Year-Sales to Britain, U.S., other Formerly Worthless, Livers of Nuisance Countries Alike Improve-Increased Trade Fish Bring British Columbia Fishermen in Many Different Products Some $4,000

In brief, this is what happened in In the dried and pickled fish class Grayfish, or dogfish, probably don't Canada's export trade in fisheries prod- the principal product going into export know it yet but the livers they carry ucts in the first nine months of 1937 business is dried codfish and in January- about with them have taken on a value as compared with the business in the September there was a rise of very of their own. like period of 1936:- nearly S116,000 in the value of the dried Some forty tons of the livers have Export value increased by 13 per codfish shipments although in volume been shipped in recent weeks from cent, or $2,411,000, reaching a total they decreased. In January-September, British Columbia to a United States of S20,432,000, roundly stated. 1936, the exports of dried cod were company and the price the fishermen Sales to countries other than Great 141,354 hundredweights and in the corre- were paid was five cents a pound. Not Britain and the United States totalled sponding period of this year they were a big sum, perhaps, but no doubt a more than S5,387,000, an increase of only 137,590. In value, however, the welcome return from what was "new 25 per cent. '37 shipments ran to SS03,194, as com- business." When whole fish were sold Sales to the United Kingdom pared with S6S7,25S. by the fishermen to the liver-buying a, amounted to $4,919,000, an increase Sales of fish meal and oil made abroad agent, with the exact weight of the ned of 17 per cent. during the nine months amounted to liver obtainable from the body an un- we Sales to the United States amounted slightly more than 51,034,000, an in- certainty since the ratio of weight of to into $10,126,450, an increase of 7 per crease of about S2S2,000. Most of the liver to weight of carcass may vary cent. ther gain in the business was in the oils. consi lerably in the case of dogfish, the There ne3 was value increase in the price paid for the fish was SS a ton. business done in all four main cf The immeclia;e reason why the de- classes of fisheries products-Fresh and iller mand for the livers came to British Frozen Fish, Canned Fish, Dried and Columbia this autumn was to be found Pickled Fish, and Fish D1eal and Oil. 54 Fish, 30,840 Pounds ! in some troubles in Asia. The United The biggest export business, reckoned States company which made the Cana- in dollars, was done in fresh and frozen Fishing off one section of the Nova dian purchases had formerly been im- fish--,^,9,3S1,000, round figures. The porting one dogfish livers from Asiatic greater part of this trade, of course, Scotia coast this kummer sport fishermen men sources but this year there was un- was in shipments to the United States. landed 54 tuna with rod and line, and e of certainty of delivery and the company An interesting point, however, is that the fish weighed 30,S40 pounds or, on ^ther turned to British Columbia. Possibly the sales of frozen salmon and halibut the average, about 570 pounds. The the result of this occurrence may be to Great Britain increased both in figures come from the reports of the increased sales of Canadian dogfish quantity and value. Halibut sold to federal fisheries inspector for the dis- livers in future years. the United Kingdom totalled 14,961 trict. In another district 60 tuna were Fish Rich in Vitamins hundredtiveiâhts, with a value of landed by anglers. And in another 181 ,the $159,540, as compared with 13,473 hun- with a total weight of almost 50,000 Until comparatively recent years no- anal dredireights and S124,454 in January- pounds. In some other Atlantic dis- body knew that dogfish livers had any- tra^ September, 1936. In the case of salmon tricts, too, the tuna anglers had their thing to commend them, except, perhaps, veits the sales were 55,477 hundredweights, share of sport. Tuna, of course, are the fish themselves. When dogfish were shorr valued at SSS2,584, an increase of nearly captured for use in making meal and [ the also taken commercially. This year's 15,000 hundredweights in the quantity oil in fish• reduction plants the livers commercial catch-tuna fishing is over Tog and nearly $259,000 on the money side. were cooked and ground up with the for the year-was about 897,000 pounds, Yhm Canned salmon accounted for well rest of the body. In the same way, entb over half the export trade in canned as shown by unrevised reports made to halibut and swordfish livers used to be tbe f1sh products, or approximately $4,593; the Dominion Department of Fisheries thrown away as worthless in the days At 060 out of $7,330,000. The salmon sales by officers on its staff in Nova Scotia. before it was discovered that it is veII esceeded those for the first nine months All of Canada's commercial catch of vitamin content which gives cod liver of last year by almost $782,000. tuna is taken in Nova Scotia waters. (Con2inued on pape L) FISHERIES NEWS BULLETIN 2

LOBSTER FISHERMEN HAVE BETTER LUCK, British Columbia Catch MORE DOLLARS COME WITH CATCH GAIN of Halibut Rises Again

Ten-Month°iFigures Show Aggregate Canadian Catch Canada's catch of Pacific halibut last of 287,500 Hundredweights or 20,000 Increase- year was the biggest since 1915 but the landings for the 1937 season have risen Landed Value of Fares to Fishermen a million pounds and more above the Up Nearly $320,000 1936 total. Final '37 figures have not yet been compiled but preliminary re- ports show that when the season came Signs are that when figures for the as follows, though it may be noted that as the lobster fishery regulations set to a close under the regulations adopted year are complete, Canada's lobster fishing seasons for different by the International Fisheries Commis- catch for 1937 will have exceeded the different parts of the coast the use of the phrase sion, or Pacific halibut commission, the 1936 landings fairly substantially. "January-October period" does not mean British Columbia halibut fishermen had When lobster fishing came to a close that lobster fishing was continuously in landings of nearly 11,760,000 pounds of early in October, pending a reopening progress in all areas during that time:- fish to their credit. In 1936 their catch of the season on part of the coast at had totalled slightly less than 10,600,000 Cwts. mid-November, the lobstermen of the pounds. four Atlantic provinces, the Dominion's Nova Scotia...... 140,810 A good deal of improvement has taken producing area, had landed a catch of New Brunswick...... 68,290 place in the Pacific halibut fishery since 287,500 hundredweights since January 1, Prince Edward Island.. 59,210 the joint Canadian and United States or about 20,000 hundredweights more Quebec...... 19,190 commission was appointed some few than the traps had taken in the corre- Although Nova Scotia continued to years ago with a view to conserving the As a matter sponding period of 1936. be the largest producer, it was New fishery and building up the stocks of of fact, the January-October catch, as Brunswick which showed the biggest fish, which had been seriously reduced shown by unrevised statistical reports gain over the catch for January-October, in quantity by uncontrolled fishing. made to the Dominion Department of 1936-a gain of some 15,400 hundred- Both Canadian and United States fisher- was slightly larger than the Fisheries, weights. The Nova Scotia increase was men have been the gainers from the total catch of last year. Revision of 7,500 hundredweights. In Prince Edward improved conditions. Further considera- the reports may make some downward Island there was a decrease of nearly tion will be given to problems of the change in the '37 figures but no great 300 hundredweights and Quebec's land- fishery at the 1937 meeting of the com- change is likely. ings decreased by about 2,700. mission, which is being held in Seattle The only part of the coast where early in December. lobster fishing is permitted in the last More in the Cans? two months of the year is a compara- Lobster pack for the ten months was MAKE EXPORT SALE (Cont.) tively small section of the southwestern about 88,C00 cases and as there is no health value and that part of New Brunswick, where this year, canning of lobsters in the New Bruns- oil its great halibut and swordfish livers are also as last year, the season opened on wick district where the fishing season A few years ago, November 15. The catch in this area reopened in November the pack for rich in vitamins. in November-December, 1936, was ap- the ten months and the pack for the however, science found that dogfish livers have high content of Vitamin A, proximately 15,600 hundredweights. full year are one and the same thing. With gain in catch in the January- It remains for revision of existing re- and valuable research in this regard was October period there came, too, a very done, by the way, by Canadian scientists ports to show whether or not the 1937 And so tidy gain in the landed value of the output has been somewhat larger than in the federal fisheries service. catch or, phrased a bit differently, in the pack in 1936, when 88,102 cases were these livers, too, were added to the roll of vitamin bearers, though in the scale what the lobsters were worth to the put up. fisherman at point of landing. In money value they do not come into New Brunswick alone among the four of January-October of last year the lobster high brackets which have been provinces had increased lobster cannery the catch was worth $3,117,000, roundly reached by the livers of the more aristo• For the production this year. Final reports may halibut and cod and swordfish stated, at points of landing. show a gain of some 6,000 cases for cratic first ten months of 1937 the landed by comparison, Nova Scotia's pack fell -aristocrats, indeed, value total was 53,436,000, using un- the province. such fish as the cod and halibut and off several thousand cases, notwith- revised figures again and stating them swordfish, for the dogfish is a sea-goin; standing increase in catch, with more roundly, or an increase of about 5319,000. gangster, destructive of fishing gear anl of the lobsters going on the market in decent fish, and a nuisance to fishermen . Provincial Figures non-processed forms. In Quebec and Edward Island pack decrease on both Canadian coasts. By provinces, the catches for the Prince While cod and dogfish and varions accompanied catch reduction. January-October period just past were other species have their oil concentrated mainly in the liver, many other 0 -salmon and herring and whitefish, for 2,083 tons of salmon meal When thinking of the price of fish Last year example-have their vitamin-bearing cd and 171,326 gallons of salmon oil were fillets of any kind it should be remem- spread through the tissues of the body British Columbia. The bered that it takes, on the average, produced in High vitamin content is one of the meal was two and one- almost four pounds of fresh fish as it production of principal reasons, of course, why great and of oil almost comes from the water to make the half times as and shellfish are such healthful fa^ three times as much as in 1935. pound of fillets. FISHERIES NEWS BULLETIN 3 OCTOBER SEA CATCH LOWER BUT FIRM Scalloped Fish Easy to SALMON PRICES KEPT UP LANDED VALUE Make, Full of Goodness Bigger Dollar Returns from British Columbia Salmon Fishery Offset Net Decrease in Value of Output from Canadian scalloped fish, easy to naake and easy to take. Very easy to take, other Dominion Sea Fisheries—Landings indeed, for it is full of flavour, as well Less than Year Ago as rich in nourishment. It is economical, too, since "left-overs" from an earlier Catch decreased in each one of Can- The two fisheries of big production meal of fish may be used or Canadian ada's five sea fisheries provinces in carried on by the Pacific Coast fisher- canned fish which is an inexpensive food October, as compared with catch in men during the month were those for product, having regard to its nutritive October, 1936, but thanks mainly to salmon and for herring. The herring and health value. If canned fish is used, increased dollar returns frora British nets landed nearly 338,000 hundred- the oil in the can and the bones, crushed Columbia's salmon fishery the landed weights of fish, an increase of 67,400 together, should be left with the fish. value total of the Dominion's produc- hundredweights, and the landed value, The method of preparing this scal- tion of sea fish and shellfish for the $83,300, showed a 814,000 gain. About loped dish, as outlined by one of the month showed a small gain. 217,150 hundredweights of salmon were cookery demonstrators on the staff of Columbia's salmon landings brought ashore, as against 310,500 a the Dominion Department of Fisheries, British is as fell off quite sharply but prices for the year ago. follows: First make ready a white fish were firmer than a year ago, with sauce by melting two tablespoons of result that the smaller catch was Fewer Cod Taken butter, blending with the butter two the tablespoons worth S160,000 more to the fishermen, of flour, mixing with these as landed, than the larger catch of On the Atlantic Coast the fishery of ingredients a well beaten egg and a October, '36, which had a landed value larg,est October production is the cod half cup of milk, adding this mixture of about $203,000. The gain in Pacific fishery but this Year there was reduced to one and a half cups of scalded milk, salmon value not only counter-balanced catch in each of the four provinces dur- and cooking the whole until it is thick a net decrease in the dollar return from ing the month. All told, the catch was and smooth. While cooking goes on, other British Columbia fisheries but it only 88,400 hundredweights, as compared the mixture should be stirred constantly. was large enough to offset, as well, a with 127800 in the like month of 1036. Next flake two cups of stcamed, baked, reduction of some S116,000 in aggregate Nova Scotia landings were 62,200 hun- or boiled fish or a one-pound tin of landed value on the Atlantic Coast, dredv,-eights, as àgainst 80,550, and in canned fish. Place a layer of the fish and to leave about 9,500 to the good. Quebec, which ranks next to Nova in a greased baking dish, then add alter- month, Scotia as a cod producer, the catch was nate layers of white sauce and fish, Total sea fisheries catch for the having calculated from unrevised reports not quite half as large as a year ago, a layer of sauce on the top. as amounting to 18,150 hundredweights. As each layer is made to the Dominion Department put in the dish, the In October, '36, Quebec's cod fishermen desired seasoning should be added and of Fisheries, was approximately 841,700 over 251,000 hundred- captured fares weighing 37,610 hundred- the top layer of sauce a covering hundredweights, or of buttered crumbs should be placed. weights less than a year ago. In British weights. In Nova Scotia many more mackerel Bake the scallop in a moderate oven Columbia the catch was 571,700 hundred- until it is well heated eights, a drop of about 06,000, and in were caught than in the October before, and the top is 21,000 hundredweights in all, or an in- browned. the Atlantic provinces--Quebec, New If Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and crease of something like 135 per cent. desired, sliced olives and slices of about In the other provinces the mackerel hard-cooked eggs may be placed be- Nova Scotia—the decrease was tween 151,000 hundredweights. Nova Scotia catch decreased, but, in any case, Nova the layers of fish and sauce. landings totalled 157,500 hundredweights, Scotia is musli the largest producer of odd figures being omitted, the New these fish. Venus Alias Quahaug Brunswick catch was 74,100 hundred- Taking the Atlantic Coast as a whole, Scientifically, the quahaug is known weights, Quebec catch 24,300, and in there was a heavy reduction in the as Venus mercenaria but the name has Prince Edward Island the landings quantity of herring taken during Oc- nothing to do with beauty in this case. amounted to slightly less than 14,000 tober. New Brunswick's catch was There's nothing very handsome about hundredweights. As already indicated, largest, 16,800 hundredweights, but, at a hard shell clam, and that's what there was decreased production in each that, it was quite a bit less than half Venus mercenaria, or the quahaug, case. as large as in the 1936 month. Similarly, really is. But there's tastiness to it On the landed value side British New Brunswick's catch of sardines, 9,300 whether on the shell or canned and the Columbia's figures for the month were barrels, was less than a quarter as large Dominion's Atlantic Coast fishermen nearly $125,800 larger than those for as a year ago. Haddock catch for the market several thousand barrels of the preceding October, but it was a coast was down, pollock catch up. "hard-shells" every year. Last year's different story in the Atlantic region. Clam landings increased quite substan- landings totalled 2,350 barrels, nearly In the case of Nova Scotia the landed tially. Scallop landings decreased. Fewer half of them taken in New Brunswick value decreased by $35.500, in Quebec lobsters were taken, though there was waters and the others by Prince Ed- there was a drop of $33,000, in New gain in New Brunswick catch. October, ward Island and Nova Scotia fishermen. Brunswick a drop of S29,300 and in of course, is not one of the main lobster They were landed by means of rakes Prince Edward Island $18,500, round producing periods, the fishing season and, once ashore, most of them went numbers being used in each instance. closing early in the month. to the canneries. 4 FISHERIES NEWS BULLETIN INSPECTION OF SCALLOP SHIPMENTS THOUSAND SHIPS FISH AID TO GUARANTEE OF HIGH QUALITY Canada's sea fishermen use a thousand and more vessels in making their catches, New Provisions Added to Regulations Already Adopted as well as many thousands of sail boats and power boats. Last year 1,009 fishing to Help Consumer and Efficient Producer Alike by vessels were in service. Nine of them Ensuring Satisfactory Standards of Fisheries were steam-powered and the other thousand used sails or gasoline or diesel Production-Big Rise in Scallop Output engines. The vessels were valued at a little less than $4,400,000. Their con- neries and the fish curing plants have struction and gear represented work for Scallop purchasers may now buy for some years been subject to inspec- a good many Canadian artisans in many these fine Canadian shellfish in the different communities. knowledge that the fish have been tion. No lobster cannery may operate handled and shipped in accordance with unless it measures up to certain stand- ards as to sanitation, equipment, oper- regulations designed to give STANDARDIZE CLAM CANS federal No shipment of canned added assurance that their high quality ating methods. may be sent to market from will be unimpaired when they reach salmon After the end of 1937 only one size Difie Columbia, where nearly all of the market. Regulations for "the in- British of cans may be used in putting Cana- tastes Canada's canned salmon is put up, until spection and supervision of shucking, dian canned clams on the market. it has been inspected by a federal labor- them handling and shipping scallop meat" Effective at the close of December, a >;:h. have recently been added to provisions atory which was established to do this new regulation made under the federal Pickled herring, pickled already made under the federal Fish specific job. Meat and Canned Foods Act provides prepar mackerel, and pickled alewives or gas- Inspection Act with regard to handling that clam canners must use a can four ferm I pereau are subject to inspection. So and processing and marketing various inches tall and two and eleven-sixteenth millior are Atlantic oysters. So, too, are certain other fisheries products. inches in diameter and containing not the p; other fisheries products. Regulations have also been made less than five ounces of clam meat, And a Now scallops have been brought into requiring that frozen smelts from Glou- drained. An obvious result of the new sent a the control picture, and the frozen smelts cester and Restigouche Counties in rule will be that the consumer will millior New Brunswick shall be of Restigouche and Gloucester. know exactly how much he gets for northeastern Nfor the price he pays. graded for size and shipped in boxes are m Scallop Output Rises bearing, in each case, the name and There address of the man sending them to FLSHERY WOMAN'S WEEK f"h f Fish coming under the provi- Scallops have taken a place of in- market. freshR sions of the Fish Inspection Act "shall creasing importance among Canadian Extracts from a recent report by one tullibe not be sold, bought or shipped unless food products in recent years-the out- of the cookery demonstrators and and t they have been inspected and the con- put was only 46,800 shelled gallons, lecturers kept in the field by the are ^c tainers thereof marked by an inspecting roundly stated, in 1932 and by last year Department of Fisheries they I it had risen nearly to 170,750 gallons- Dominion officer." show something of the kind of work the bi Nature gave Canada the finest fish and inspection and regulations of hand- these women are doing to widen popular prol•ir and shellfish in the world, rich in ling methods is a natural development. knowledge of Canadian fish foods and house nourishment and in vitamins and health- Without going into details, suffice it to the national importance of the fishing are il building minerals, but indifferent meth- say, that the new regulations provide, industry. Reaching a town on 111onday much ods of marketing would rob them of among other things, that scallops must the demonstrator spent that day work- taken high quality. Hence it is that be shucked, handled and shipped under their to inc the Dominion authorities make regula- such sanitary conditions as will meet ing out details of the week's plans. On tions under the Fish Inspection Act and with the approval of the Department of Tuesday morning she gave a talk to $mc under certain sections of the Meat and Pensions and National Health, that only some fifty Normal School students on are r Canned Foods Act setting standards of metal containers of monel metal, "The Food Value of Fish" and in the doubt production for various fisheries produefs aluminum or tinplate may be used to afternoon another to the same grouP herrin and providing for the inspection of receive and hold shucked scallops, that on "How the School Teacher can help items these fish foods. True, the Canadian scallops must be washed in water from the Fisheries," and answered plenty of both fishing industry, as a whole, follows approved sources only. questions. On Wednesday an extended on th modern methods of operation and safe- After February 1st next metal con- address on fish foods, their value, and £rat, guards quality of its own motion but -tainers must-be used for shipping fresh methods of preparing them was give]' .once regulations made under the law serve the scallop meat and they must be packed before the teachers and cooks of a large ^tth double purpose of protecting the care- in ice within larger wooden containers. residential institution. Thursday Wa8 ful, efficient producer as well as the Each container must be marked with given over in part to demonstrations of I170,0 consumer against the occasional care- the name and address of the shipper, fish cookery at the same institution and the d less or indifferent operator. who will be required to keep a record of in part to what might be called a round as la the producers from whom the scallops table discussion with the teachers and ave Watching Quality included in any shipment were obtained; cooks. On Friday were three more produ As matters stand now, to take one or with data of this kind available it will demonstrations. Came Saturday and berrrr two examples of what is done in the be possible to place responsibility should attention to details of plans for another i150,( way of safeguarding quality by means any shipments turn out to be of un- series of demonstrations and addresses r43,0( of regulation, the fish and shellfish can- satisfactory quality. which were given in the following Nceek. FISHERIES NEWS BULLETIN inister: Published Monthly by the Department of Fisheries, . Deputy Minister on. J. E. MICHAUD, M.P. Ottawa, Canada W. A. FOUND

Vol. IX DECEMBER, 1937 No. 98 VIDE RANGE OF SMOKED FISH PRODUCTS 76-FOOTER BIGGEST .FROM FISHING INDUSTRY OF DOMINION AMONG 1937 WHALES • More than Dozen Kinds of Fish Put Upon Market from Smoke-Houses in Many Parts of Country—Worth Total 1937 Canadian Captures Well Up to over Million Dollars at Shipping Points—Some Average Number—Production Value Domestic Smoking Done Promises Gain

Different people may have different boneless herring valued at close to Looking back over their 1937 cap- tures, British Columbia's whalers can :ostes in food but a good many of $7,000. declare with truth that a female of them evidently like Canadian smoked Finnan haddies and smoked fillets of haddocks, combined, were not far the species was much bigger than the fish. The Dominion's output of fish behind smoked herring in value, topping males. Or at least much longer. A prepared for market in the smoked the $200,000 mark with some thousands 76-foot female Sulphur was at the top form runs to something more than a of dollars to spare. None of the other of the list. Next came a Finback, this one a female, too, with a length tnillion dollars a year in net value to smoked products approached these measurement of seventy-one feet from the producers at points of shipment. figures in market value. The output from the smoke-houses processing hake tip to toe, so to speak. However, And a million net value dollars repre- amounted to something over $61,000. if females led the length list, the males .ent a good deal of fish, a great many Next came goldeyes, the principal can claim the credit of making up by million pounds of raw material. freshwater fish used for smoking, with far the greater part of the kill. That More than a dozen kinds of fish a value of close to $27,000. Other was their mistake. are marketed by Canada's fish smokers. smoked products included black cod As it happened, the big Sulphur was There are fish from the Atlantic Coast, from British Columbia, ling cod fillets the only member of its particular fsh from British Columbia, smoked from the same quarter, tullibee from branch of the whale family to be freshwater fish such as goldeyes and inland areas, alewives or gaspereau, included among the season's 317 cap- tullibees. There are fish smoked whole salmon, and small quantities of pollock, tures. Seven Humpbacks were taken, and there are smoked fillets. There catfish fillets, mackerel, and whitefish. forty-four Finbacks, and the remaining are .some fish which are canned after whales killed. 265. were Sperms. At they have been smoked. As it happens, How Smoking's Done one time the Fihs, or Finbacks, the biggest production is in the Atlantic Sometimes, of course, people like to ordinarily out-numbered other whales provinces, and most of the smoke- smoke some fish for themselves. off British Columbia, but of late years houses, of course, whether East or West, Naturally, these are only small scale the Sperms have made up much the are in the sea fishing district, since operations but in principle the method greater part of the annual kill. No much the greater part of the catch followed is the same as that employed Seis were captured in 1937 nor any taken in the freshwater areas is shipped by commercial smokers. As explained whales of the Right or Bottlenose to market either fresh or frozen. by the Dominion Department of groups. Neither Sulphurs nor Seis are Smoked fish output figures for 1937 Fisheries—the reference here is not ever taken in numbers off British are not yet fully compiled but no to the method of preparing herring Columbia nowadays and no Bottlenoses doubt smoked cod and smoked sea kippers or bloaters—the fish should be or Rights have been captured for some herring have been the biggest single split, the fins cut off, the entrails years pa.st. Items products, biggest removed. Then, after being thor- in the list of Under 1936, Above 1955 both as to quantity and as to value oughly washed, they should be packed on the market. In 1936 herring came in tubs or other suitable containers It is only off British Columbia, so far Eg so far as volume of output was and covered with salt—about four as Canadian waters are concerned, that macerned, with smoked cod second; pounds of salt to every hundred pounds whaling operations are carried on and an the value side, however, cod came of fish should be scattered among thèm. if the 1937 kill ivres not as large as the ",,rst, with the figure standing at nearly The fish should be covered with a kill in 1936 it exceeded the 1935 figure lemoo, and herring was second, with brine of a 90° salinity and left in it by 115. In 1935 the whalers brought the dollar total a little less than half for three hours or more, the length 202 whales to land and in 1936 their as large as smoked cod value. All of time depending on the strength of tally was 378. save a small part of the smoked cod the pickle, the size of the fish, and Two whaling stations, both on the Production consisted of fillets. The the flavour desired. (If freshwater fish Queen Charlotte Islands, are operat,ed herring smokers put up more than are being handled some alum, about in British Columbia and the whales 1 150,000 worth of bloaters and about one-half of one per cent, may be added which are captured are used in making 173,000 worth of kippers, as well as (Continued on page 4) (Continued on page 4) 2 FISHERIES NEWS BULLETIN MORE SALMON DOLLARS LIFT SEA FISH " SALT FISHING " FLEET ^IIC VALUE THOUGH NOVEMBER CATCH DOWN MAKES BIGGER CATCH Landings Smaller in all Sea Fisheries Provinces but Lunenburg Bankers Take Increased Lanl Grow British Columbia and Nova Scotia Show Value ings of Cod for Dried Fish Trade Gain-Pacific Salmon and Nova Scotia Cod Feature Fisheries of Month Modern successors of a fleet which has had stirring place in fishermen's many generations, Lunea Gr November. In the records for October history repeated itself in production during burg's deep sea fishing schooners found and British Columbia fisheries the November and increased dollar return other fortune kinder to them on their "salt thou, fluctuations were of minor importance, from British Columbia's salmon fishery fishing" trips in 1937 than it had been from mainly responsible for bringing although there was a relatively sharp was in 1936. All told, the fleet's three trips old about a net gain in the landed value reduction in clam catch and landed to the banks for cod for use in making inch of the Dominion's total catch of sea value. dried salt fish yielded about 104,150 a ti'. fish and shellfish. The gain was not a Among Atlantic Fishermen quintals, as compared with a little lea or t large one, about $38,700, but it brought Quebec fishermen did not have very than 80,000 quintals in the preceding landed value for the sea fisheries of hate] .good luck. Their cod catch, 10,750 season. both coasts up to $771,000, as compared hundredweights, showed a decrease of This does not tell all the story of size. with something more than $732,000 in more than fifty per cent. There was the Lunenburg fleet's fishing for the In November, 1936. an even sharper drop in its landed year, of course, for these Nova Scotia and Total sea fisheries catch for the value, which amounted to slightly less schooners go "fresh fishing" as well. As inch month decreased, dropping to 908,160 than $14,100. The other two sea the term implies, on "fresh fishing" fishe hundredweights, as shown by unrevised fisheries carried on in Quebec during trips the vessels are making catches for and reports made to the Dominion Depart- November were those for herring and the fresh fish trade just as when they duct ment of Fisheries. Landings from smelts. The smelt figures rose some- go "salt fishing" their catches are mori British Columbia's salmon fishery itself what and herring returns decreased. destined for dried fish markets. Fish of t were smaller than a year ago but In Prince Edward Island November for both the fresh fish markets and Col prices had become firmer and hence is never one of the busier fisheries the dried fish trade are also taken by ince the rise in salmon value in spite of months. November just past showed the shore fishermen as well as by the like lessened catch. little change in either aggregate catch deep-sea vessels. shell In each of the five sea fisheries for the province or aggregate landed Each branch of the fishing industrf Prin provinces-British Columbia, Quebec, value but the changes were downward. has its own methods of operation and Ai Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick The most important operations in in the case of the Lunenburg salt Brui fishing fleet the practice is for the and Nova Scotia-there was catch progress were in the oyster fishery. the reduction, as compared with catch for Oyster catch, dropping a couple of schooners to make three trips for 1936 October, '36. In Nova Scotia, as on hundred barrels to a total of 1,890, catches for the dried fish trade each digg the Pacific Coast, there was an increase had a landed value of slightly more season-the Frozen Bait, Spring and of number of in landed value, with most of the than 59,200, a decrease of appro,d- Summer trips. The barr credit for that state of affairs going to mately $1,500. schooners making the different trips Coh the cod fishery, but in the other three New Brunswick's fishermen increased varies more or less but in 1937 there clan AtLntic provinces the dollar return to their catches of lobsters, cod, clams were more vessels in the fleet than in sligl H36 season, the largest number, the fishermen in the value of their and hake. On the other hand, sardines the Edv catch at point of landing showed a were taken in reduced quantity, so 29, on the Summer trip. On the 1936 to i drop. Taking the Atlantic Coast as a were herring and pollock. Smelt land- Summer trip there were 25. C whole, landed value, slightly more than ings decreased but there was a value Production from the Frozen Baiting fres $378,000, decreased by more than gain. Fluctuations in other New trip in '37 was 6,900 quintals, pruh' exp^ $12,000. In British Columbia the value Brunswick fisheries were not of much cally the same total as was taken on the gain was $51,000, roundly stated. importance. the corresponding trip of twelve montlL ner Figures grew bigger after that The Pacific coast fishermen landed Increase in the returns from the cod before. clar only 81,800 hundredweights of salmon, fishery was the change of chief On the two remaining trips the land' foo, as against 150,100 hundredweights a year importance in the Nova Scotia results ings totalled 97,250 quintals, as ag^ or As already indicated, however, for the month, as already suggested. only 72,750 on the Spring and Summer in ago. Taking the 1937 season salmon prices had stiffened quite a bit The cod fishermen brought their catch trips of 1936. } ea and -the result was that the landed up to 66,400 hundredweights, a gain of as a whole, the average catch Per tot< was greater than in the precced' value of the catch for the month was roughly 3,600 hundredweights, and it vessel thir Some of the craft madQ $166,400, or $58,000 and more above the was worth, as landed, $97,900, up ing season. \e, figure for the preceding October. In $16,000 in round figures. Mackerel unusually big catches. leai Prices obtained for the fish from thr the case of British Columbia's herring landings, too, were larger in Nova por fishery, too, there was an increase in Scotia than a year ago and their value Frozen Bait trip were quite a bit better quz landed value notwithstanding that the to the fishermen showed a gain of over than those prevailing at the corre' reft quantity of herring taken had dropped. 50 per cent, exceeding $31,500. Smelt sponding time in the preceding Ye" can The salmon and herring fisheries were production and value increased slightly. Spring and Summer trip prices, hoa'• the two Pacific fisheries of large scale (Continued on pape 4) ever, were not so firm. FISHERIES NEWS BULLETIN 3 1IICROSCOPE NEEDED TO START SOCKEYE RUN IN SUN DOES DRYING FOR SEE BABY CLAMS NANAIMO RIVER SYSTEM SALT FISH PRODUCERS Grown Up They're Worth $200,000 Yearly Nature put no Sockeye salmon into Air and Sun-Cured, Dominion's Dried to Dominion with Both Coasts the Nanaimo River system on Van- Fish High in Nourishing Protein couver Island but perhaps Man is Content Producing Sources going to make good the oversight. At all events, Sockeye swam in the river Great oaks from little acorns grow, this year and they were apparently Canadian dried fish is a nourishing and clams worth a couple of hundred some of the fish which had developed food because it contains so high a percentage of protein but it also con- thousand dollars a year to Canada from eggs planted in the stream several tains a good deal of salt and for this from tiny creatures which at two weeks years ago by the Fish Culture Branch Department of reason it should always be "freshened" old are only about one-twentieth of an of the Dominion Fisheries. Twenty-one of the salmon before it is made into fish cakes or Nor are clams as long inch in size. were taken in some test fishing which creamed fish or any of the other tasty a time as oaks in growing. In two the department carried on in the dishes which may be prepared from it. or three years the microscopic new- Nanaimo during summer weeks and Nature does most of the drying of the hatched clam has reached marketable more than a hundred of their cousins cod and haddock and hake and cusk size. and their uncles and their aunts were and pollock which are put on the market in the dried form-split and In distributing clam resources here seen in one of the river's pools by a and there throughout the world Nature fisheries guardian in the course of his cleaned and trimmed and washed by included all five of the Dominion's sea patrols. the fishermen the fish are put out to dry, in most cases, in the pure, open fisheries provinces within its bounty An examination of the Nanaimo air and the sun-but in the course of and nowadays the total Canadian pro- system with a view to ascertaining the processing method a good deal of duction from the clam beds runs to whether or not a Sockeye run could salt is put upon them so that spoilage more than 70,000 barrels a year. Most be established there was undertaken a may be prevented. of the landings are clams from British few years ago at the request of the follow Columbia and the four Atlantic prov- Nanaimo Board of Trade. Physical Different cooks sometimes methods of freshening dried inces but they also include something conditions were found to be appar- different like 2,000 barrels of quahaugs or hard- ently fairly suitable, although there fish but this is how one of the cookery shell clams produced in New Brunswick, were two possible adverse factors- demonstrators on the staff of the Fisheries Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia. plankton seemed rather scarce and there Dominion Department of suggests it should be done: Among the five provinces New was a large trout population. In the Brunswick and British Columbia are late winter or early spring of 1933 the Shred or tear the fish into strips, the biggest producers of clams. In fish culture people planted in the river cover the strips well with warm water, 1936, for example, New Brunswick's over a million Sockeye eggs from their move them about freely in the water diggers Ianded more than 31.000 barrels Rivers Inlet hatchery. The eggs had to loosen the salt, pour off the water, of clams and over eleven hundred been collected in the autumn of 1932 and repeat the process; then place the fish on the stove in plenty of barrels of quahaugs, and British and as the Rivers Inlet Sockeye are very largely 5-year fish-that is, the fresh water and let it simmer for ten Columbia over 25,700 barrels of the minutes--simmer, not boil. Or, in- clams. Nova Scotia production was fish hatched from the eggs of one year stead of simmering the fish, soak it slightly less than 11,000 barrels, Prince return from the sea as mature salmon in fresh warm water for twelve Edward Island had about 2,700 barrels five years later-l-any run to the minutes. to its credit and Quebec 2,300. Nanaimo system would make its appearance in 1937. It is to be remembered, however, Clams go upon the market both the demonstrator adds, that the degree When Sockeye were taken in the fresh-many of the fresh clams are of freshness to be sought depends very river during the past summer they exported to the United States-and in largely on individual taste. It may be were examined by the staff of the the canned form. Some of the can- that to suit the taste in some instances Biological Station and were neries also put up clam chowder, and Pacific the fish may need to be freshened for identified ' as 5-year fish. In other clam chowder, of course, is a very tasty more than ten or twelve minutes. words since the Nanaimo is not natur- food whether it comes out of a can Milk, by the way, when used in making or is ally a Sockeye water, there was good made by the housewife herself dried fish dishes lessens the salty in In a normal reason to believe that the 1937' fish the family kitchen. flavour. Canadian canneries put up a came from the planting of 1932 eggs. Year the Fish cakes or balls are one of the total pack of about thirty-one or How successfully the stock will develop Perhaps dishes in which many housewives use thirty-tivo thousand cases of clams, remains, of course, to be seen. dried fish. They're cosy to make, and, New Brunswick and British Columbia the large size of the trout population properly made, they're easy to take. leading Incidentally in and the questionable abundance of in output. There are numerous recipes for making Popular use, the word "clam" includes plankton may interfere with the growth must give the them, and here is one: Take one cup quahaugs and is so used here in the of the run. Time answers but the initial step in getting of pieces of freshened fish and boil it references to market forms and clam Sockeye into the river system has with two cups of diced potatoes until cannery products. (Continued on page 4) (Continued on page 4) apparently succeeded. 4 FISHERIES NEWS BULLETIN WIDE RANGE—Conc. Frozen Fish for Britain to the brine in order to make the Identifying the Scallop flesh firmer.) Canada's sales of frozen halibut and When the fish have been removed If a little knowledge is a dangerous salmon have been growing in Great from the pickle they should be dipped thing there are times, too, when it's Ho Britain in the past few years and 1937 into fresh water, allowed to drain, and also knowledge that isn't so, as for has seen them moving toward still then hung on rods in the smoke house instance when an instructress in one higher levels. In the first ten months or smoking chamber. Hooks should be city told her pupils that scallops are of the year more than 5,850,000 pounds driven into the rods, ten or twelve pieces cut from the sides of halibut. of chilled or frozen salmon and over inches apart, and the fish hung upon Scallops and halibut are not akin. The 0' 1,715,000 pounds of halibut were shipped them with the backs to the rods. halibut is one of the larger fish, the to the United Kingdom by Canadian Smoking should go on for four or five scallop is a distinct kind of shellfish, producers. All told, the fish were worth hours, over a hardwood or sawdust fire. belonging to the scientific genus Pecteu 81,065.000, roundly stated, or about If it is desired to have the fish well The scallop shell is in two halves, or 8307,000 more than the business done smoked on the inside as well as on the "valves," and the only part of the body Ti in these two commodities in the same out,side, small pieces of wood should be that is marketed is the adductor muscle. market in the first ten months of 1936. used to keep the abdominal cavity Unlike the muscles of land animals, A trade with Britain in other kinds of stretched open. however, the scallop muscle is not frozen fish beside halibut and salmon If the fish are intended to be kept tough. The principal scallop fishery may also be established before long as for some weeks they should be left in Canadian waters at present is of 1 growing numbers of Old Country con- in pickle for about six hours and the western coast of Nova Scotia, trY sumers come to know the excellent smoked for about twelve hours instead although there is also a fair-eized ths condition in which Canada can deliver of for only four or five. fishery off southwestern New Bruns- ths shipments. Modern methods of freez- wick. Scallops also occur on different ma transporting fish make it quite the ing and 76-FOOTER BIGGEST—Conc. other parts of the Atlantic Coast bu feasible, indeed, to deliver Canadian so far they have not been found in ni frozen fish, unimpaired in natural meal and oil and fertilizer. With in large fist captures smaller than a year ago, the these areas quantities. The it quality, to points even farther away total Canadian production in 1936– than the British Isles. output of these whale by-products ter naturally decreased but, nevertheless, "Canadian" production really means At' it reached sizeable figures. Moreover, Atlantic Coast production only since MICROSCOPE NEEDED—Conc. scallops are not taken commercially in CO1 although final revised returns for the more In general the Atlantic canning year are not yet at hand, the pre- British Columbia waters—was 19: method is as follows, although there liminary reports indicate that the total than 170,000 shelled gallons. cal are variations in detail, of course, in marketed value of whale products for air the different canneries: 1937 will show an increase over the MORE SALMON DOLLARS—Conc. of After the shells have been opened 1936 total, notwithstanding that output The quantity of scallops taken WU a by steaming them slightly or passing decreased. Present statistics show that smaller than in October, 1936, and the 44; them through hot water, the meat is the year's production of fertilizer was catch was worth a little less than tit tal extracted, dipped in clean cold water 527 tons, of whale meal 268 tons, and S39.900, as against $55,500. The halibut th in order to prevent toughening, the of whale oil 662,355 gallons. The figures increased a bit but landire snouts and thin skins or film coverings Scots decrease in oil production was about from most of the other Nova 131 are removed, and the clams are thor- 100,000 gallons. Whale meal, like fish fisheries fell off. oughly cleansed of grit. The meat is do meal, is used for stock feeding and the an then placed in cans which are filled oil has various commercial uses. What are popularly known as the almost to the top with the clam liquor ah modus vivendi privileges have again Ci or with the clam liquor diluted with been granted by Canada to United sea water or fre,sh water. After the SUN DOES DRYING—Conc. le. States fishing vessels for the year 1935 Po covers have been put on the cans are the potatoes are cooked, then mash the Modus vivendi licences issued by the "exhausted" for about te n minutes at fish and potatoes until they are thor- Minister of Fisheries will permit United 212° F., then the tops are sealed and oughly blended; add a teaspoon of States fishing craft to enter Atlantic the cans are cooked in retorts at a butter and pepper to suit the taste, ports of the Dominion during 1938 to temperature of 240° F. The length of and beat the mixture until it is light; purchase bait, ice, seines, lines, and other cooking time depends upon the size ar allow the mixture to become slightly supplies and outfits. ni of can; a one pound can is processed cool, then add to it a well-beaten egg, — ss for about twenty minutes. shape pieçes of the mixture into balls Seventeen fish reduction plants, valued re In British Columbia canneries the about the size of a large walnut and at more than 8800,000 were in operation 5 unshelled clams are cooked in vats; fry them in deep, smoking hot fat. in Canada last year manufacturing fish thence, as the shells have opened, they The ingredients indicated will make a meal and oil. are carried to tables where the pickers sufficient quantity to serve six persons. extract the meat. At other tables the All of the 15,000 or so people who clams are packed into cans and a Three fisheries--salmon, lobster, and in Canadian fish canning ard work supply of the liquor or "clam nectar" cod fisheries--account for between fifty curing plants are sea fisheries workers collected in the cooking vats is added and sixty per cent of the total annual of the Dominion's catzli Practically all a to each can. Then the covers are put marketed value of Canadian fisheries of freshwater fish is marketed in the on the cans by machinery and canning production. The salmon fishery ranks fresh and frozen forms, not canned er completed. first. cured. FISHERIES NEWS BULLETIN Deputy Minister giaister: Published Monthly by the Department of Fisheries, gon. J. E. MICHAUD, M.P. Ottawa, Canada W. A. FOUND No. 99 Vol. IX JANUARY, 1938 OVER 44,100,000 POUND CANS YEARLY PICKLED FISH ADD AVERAGE OF CANNED SALMON EXPORTS VARIETY TO MENUS M. or Three-quarters of Business in Five-Year Period Done Plenty Available, too, with Canadian >ds with British Countries-Sales to United Kingdom ,le. Production Eighteen or Twenty als, over 50 Per Cent of Export Total in Value rot Million Pounds Yearly ery Most Canadians know that their coun- account for so high a percentage of the oH try has big salmon fisheries but even at value total since the percentage figure Housewives who haven't tried them tis, may be news to some of them is seemingly somewhat out of line with will find that Canadian pickled -fish- zed that it that the Dominion is one of the world's the volume of the trade with Britain. herrin„ mackerel and alewives-make a ms- major exporters of salmon in cans. On Actually, the explanation is not hard to pleasant variation in the family menu. 'ent the dollar side, canned salmon ranks first find. In the main it lies in the fact that Pickled fish have this merit, too, that bu in importance among Canada's many the United Kingdom is the largest pur- they are modest in cost. Nor are they in fisheries exports, with practically all of chaser of Canadian canned Sockeye and difficult to prepare for the table. Indeed, The it shipped from British Columbia can- Sockeye is the highest priced product of some recipes in which they may be used neries. Only a very small part of the the canneries. are very simple. Nothing could be less ans Atlantic salmon catch is used for canning. Other Major Buyers trouble, for instance, than broiling one nce Figures vary from year to year, of or two of these fish. All that needs to be .h Canada's major markets for canned course, but in the five-year period, done is to clean them, cut off the heads salmon, apart from Britain, are Australia, are 1932-36, Canada's annual exportation of and leave the fish in cold water over France and New Zealand. Australia, canned salmon averaged in quantity night to `freshen" them or, in, other however, leads the other two countries almost 920,000 cases, or the equivalent words, to lessen the saltiness induced by as an importer. In 1936 the shipments nc. of more than 44,100,000 one-pound cans the pickling; then, when the meal is to Australian purchasers represented a a year. Anybody who doesn't think to be made ready, dry the fish, sprinkle a was little more than 23 per cent of the export 44,100,000 pound cans mean a big quan- little lemon juice over them, and put the value total. The Dominion also sells tity of fish might try seeing how long it them on to broil. The length of cook- ;han canned salmon to some twenty other takes to count up to a single million, and ing time required depends, of course, ibut export markets and to many of them in then repeat the process forty-four times. upon the size of the fish but five or six ing important quantities. Most of the salmon exports go to minutes is sufficiently long for those of otis All five species of Pacific salmon- British countries, with the United King- medium size. A tart sauce may be served Sockeyes, Cohoes, Springs, Pinks and dom the largest single buyer. On the with the fish, although it is not essential Chums-are used for canning and some annual average during the '32-36 period the that this be done. about 74 per cent of the shipments from Steelhead trout are also packed by the Most of the catch of A good deal of pickled fish is put up on gai:t Canada went to British markets. Slightly salmon canneries. jted Springs, however, is used for the fresh Canada's Atlantic coast every year. In less than half of all the sales to these 0, market and the canned output is not very 1936, for example, the output was nearly particular markets were made to the the large. The pack of Steelhead trout is 18,800,000 pounds, and that's a good United Kingdom. deal of fish in anybody's calculation. Of lited Reckoned in dollars, the business with small. Intic As already indicated, the exports of this total output nearly 8,350,000 were Britain had still larger place in the 3 to canned Sockeyes go mainly to the United pickled mackerel, nearly 6,500,000 pounds export picture. In 1936, for example- ther Kingdom, though there are sales to were herring, and more than 3,900,000 analyzed figures of the 1937 trade are pounds were alewives or, as these fish are not yet at hand, by the way-the canned various-other markets as, for instance, sales to South Africa and Australia. often known, gaspareau. Complete figures salmon sent to the United Kingdom for 1937 production have not yet been ]ued represented, in value, a little more than Cohoes are sold in large quantities to France and Australia buy compiled. Nova Scotia and Quebec are rtion 54 per cent of the export total. It was a Australia. substantial quantities of Pinks. Chums the biggest producers of pickled mackerel fi^ Percentage point or two higher than that make up a goodly part of the shipments and pickled herring, but New Brunswick in 1932, 1934 and 1935 but lower in 1933 to France and in 1937 they were sold in leads in the production of pickled ale- when some exceptional trade conditions wives. ' Who brought an abnormal degree of fluctua- southern areas of the United States in These statements and tion. In the five years the sales to quite large quantities. Subject to Inspection ker• Britain amounted, in round figures, to an indicate some of the principal markéts for different kinds of salmon from the All three of these fish make excellent ateb average of $3,150,000 a year, with a the Dominion but they do not mean, of food. They supply protein for nourish- 'top' of $4,158,000 in 1935. ment and, like other sea fish, they supply d or Perhaps the layman might wonder why course, that the shipments to any of on page 4) (Continued on page t) the trade with Great Britain should (Continued 81034 2 FISHERIES NEWS BULLETIN VITAMIN TUCKED AWAY WINS MUD SHARK Make Far From Fish PLACE AMONG USEFUL.FISH.1PRODUCTS Fish go into fur making in this coun- try, though that doesn't mean that they Science again Aid to Industry and British Columbia are transformed into furs by some Fishermen Add a Bit to Earnings when Livers remarkable process of man's devising. of Shark Found Source of Vitamin A Nature does the transforming on fur farms where fish are used as part of the food of foxes and other fur-bearing Now it's mud shark livers that have ings were purchased by the company at animals which are being raised in cap- been added to the products of Canada's seven cents a pound, as has been said. tivity. Perhaps all the arguments which commercial fishermen. They've taken on Once ashore, the livers were frozen and hold good in favour of fish as food for value because Nature has put generous shipped to a United States oil-making humans do not apply in the case of the quantities of Vitamin A into their com- firm. Assays of the oil made from them fur-bearing dumb animals, but appar. position and couldn't keep the secret are reported as showing very satisfactory ently some of the minerals and other from the scientists. Vitamin A potency. substances which are present in the flesh Trying a new venture last autumn, The eight species of sharks, in addition and oils of fish aid in the sound growth Prince Rupert fishermen landed between to the mud shark, occurring off British of foxes, mink, etc. At all events, num- twenty-five and thirty thousand pounds Columbia are the basking shark, which bers of the fur farms or ranches make of mud shark livers and found a sale for is the biggest of the group, grayfish or use of fish for feeding purposes-waste them at seven cents a pound, as reported dogfish, cat shark, spotted cow, mackerel fish or fish of some of the non-commer- to the Dominion Department of Fisheries shark, soup fin, blue shark and sleeper. cial species. Sometimes the fur farmers by its Pacific coast officers. A return of Only the mud shark, grayfish and basking catch the fish themselves, as, for example, a couple of thousand dollars from selling shark have been studied as regards vita- in the Prince George district of British something that was formerly worth noth- min content of the liver oil which can Columbia. Last year these British Colum- ing would not be sneezed at by anybody, be obtained from them. It is quite likely bia men landed some 50,000 pounds of whether fisherman or landlubber. Prince that liver oils from some of the other suckers, squawfish, chubs and other fish Rupert men expect to do some more species have been used in some measure for use at their ranches. In Northeastern shark fishing in '38. Fishermen in some in British Columbia but exact data in New Brunswick some months ago, to other parts of British Columbia will this regard are not available. take another case, quite a number of probably join in, too. boys and young men spent profitable Plenty of Vitamin A The case of the mud shark livers is time in catching tommy-cods which were another of the instances of fishermen Grayfish oil, for non-medicinal uses, used by fur farmers of their district. How owing thanks to Science for opening up has been produced in British Columbia best to feed fur-farm stock is a subject a new source of earnings for them. Re- for quite a nummer of years past-dog- on which the non-farmer or non-scientist search workers found that the liver of fish have also been used in oil making may not be qualified to speak, but in this particular species of shark has valu- on the Atlantic coast-but researches be- view of the protein, mineral and vitamin able content of Vitamin A and that gun at the Prince Rupert experimental content of fish it is easy to understand means that the liver oil can be useful in station about ten years ago indicated that they can be used to advantage. making medicinal preparations. It takes that oil made from the liver of the fish had reasonably high Vitamin A potency. its place with halibut, swordfish, salmon PICKLED FISH-Con. and other fish oils which have now come Use of the liver oil for blending with also the iodine and other health-guard- to share the distinction of cod liver oil other fish oils to form medicinal prepara- ing substances which the human body as aids to healthfulness, although this is tions followed in due course. Later in- needs. So far as their quality is con- not to say, of course, that there are no vestigations by the research workers have cerned, it is provided by the Fish Inspec- differences in the vitamin values of the shown that the oil's average Vitamin A tion Act that pickled mackerel, herring various oils. There are differences; for potency is higher than had been indi- and alewives must be cured, graded and example, the cod's liver is rich in Vitamin cated by the earlier studies. packed in accordance with regulations D, the liver of the mud shark apparently On the other hand-one more evidence made under the Act "and shall not be is not. of the striking differences which may be bought, sold or shipped unless they bave Station Gives Lead found in two fish of the same group- research so far has indicated that the been inspected and the containers there- What happened at Prince Rupert in basking shark is not comparable to its of marked by an inspecting officer." regard to mud shark livers last year was cousin, the mud shark, in the vitamin In the Canadian fisheries mackerel and the result, or largely the result at all potency of its liver. What makes the alewives are taken in Atlantic waters events, of suggestions from the federal difference? •That's one secret Nature has only. Herring are landed in very large Fisheries Research Station at that British so far managed to keep to itself. quantities on both coasts but only a Columbia city. A local company had very small part of the British Columbia been interested in the production of fish catch is pickled. liver oils for several years and at the station's suggestion decided to look into Fish canned in Canada as sardines are the possibility of making use of mud little herring. All of the canning is done Eighteen or twenty different kinds of shark livers. Accordingly, some fisher- in SouthwesteTn New Brunswick where fish and shell fish are taken in Quebee's ment set out after the sharks, one of the the fish are taken in great quantities by sea fisheries. The most important catches nine species of sharks which have been means of weirs, which are devices made are those of cod, lobsters, herring and Sal- recorded from British Columbia watet^, of small poles or posta, brushwood and mon. Quebec also has valuable fresh' and the livers obtained from their land- netting which run out from shore. water fisheries as well as sea fisheries. FISHERIES NEWS BULLETIN SUBSTANTIAL INCREASE IN SEA FISH LANDINGS IN CLOSING MONTH OF 1937 Protecting Fisheries During 180 days' duty at sea during Preliminary Reports Forecast Gain in Landed Value 1937 the Fisheries Department ship Return to Fishermen for Year as a Whole--Sharp Arleux steamed nearly 10,400 miles in Atlantic coast waters, keeping one eye Rise in B.C. Herring Catch December open to see that Canadian fishermen Feature respected Canadian fishing laws and one eye open to see that foreign vessels did Nineteen thirty-seven clo.%•d its career provinces the month's figures were as not infringe Canadian rights. Both eyes very creditably so far as size of Canada's follows: were always open, too, for cases in which sea fisheries catch in its final month was Catch Landed other craft might be in need of help concerned but the Old Year had nothing Cwts. Value through stress of weather or other causes, British Columbia. . . 988,850 $185,000 and several vessels or boats were given much to boast about in the case of De- Nova Scotia. . . 180,600 521,203 cember's landed value return to fisher- New Brunswick.. 37,200 115,800 assistance in circumstances of that kind. Quebec...... 1,900 4,300 An important part of the Arleux's work men. Prince Edward Island. . 13,100 The month's landings of sea fish and 6,900 consisted of seeing to it that lobster shellfish increased on each coast of the Provincial Changes fishing regulations were obeyed. Here and there the ship happened on cases Dominion but in spite of the resultant As compared with the results of oper- total gain of something like 140,000 hun- in which lobster traps had been set ations in the preceding December there illegally and as a result, her crew de- dredweights there was an increase of only was an increase of some 115,000 hun- a few hundred dollars on the landed stroyed 425 offending traps. The lob- dredweights in catch in British Columbia sters in the traps were set free and thus value side, as compared with the figures and ncarly S22,000 in its landed value. for December, 1936. The see-ming dis- escaped the boiling vat, for the time Nova Scotia's catch increased by roughly being at all events. In addition to the proportion between catch gain and value 22,000 hundredweights but its value to gain is ex-plained, in the main, by two Arleux, three other ships are also oper- the fishermen by only a couple of thous- ated by the Department of Fisheries in facts. In the first place, the increase in and dollars. In New Brunswick there Pacific coast landings was due almost the protection service—the Arras, on the was a production increase of nearly 2,000 Atlantic coast and the Malaspina and altogether to a sharp jump in herring hundredweights but value dropped $21,- catch and herring are low priced fish. In the Givenchy in Pacific waters, a larger 000, roundly stated. There was some de- number of smaller craft are operated in the second place, lobster and scallop crease in Prince Edward Island landings prices fell off in the Atlantic area—it is the fisheries patrol service in the shore and a $4,000 decrease on the other side waters. only in Atlantic waters that lobsers and of the account. Quebec's December catch scallops are taken—and though the is always small but in the '37 month it lobster fishermen increased their catches was quite a bit larger than in the cor- Commercial production from Mani- quite a bit and the scallop fishermen did responding period of '36 and there was toba's fisheries had an average annual a little better in production than in De- some gain in value. value of S1,333,220 during the five-year cember, '36, their dollar returns decreased In British Columbia the herring catch period 1932-36. • Manitoba comes first substantially. was the large item on the month's pro- among the Prairie provinces in fisheries As regards the showing for 1937 as duction side, 439,000 hundredweights output. a whole, preliminary, unrevised reports being landed as against only 296,000 indicate that sea fisheries landed value hundredweights twelve months before. , Eels are taken both in Canada's sea total will show an increase over the The catch was worth $98,150 as landed. fisheries and freshwater fisheries but $17,000,000 total of 1936—perhaps quite The other changs of importance on the much the greater part of the annual a fair gain—though in some of the Pacific coast were a drop of over 50 per catch is landed from the freshwater provinces the production and value cent in clam landings and a blank in the areas of one province—Quebec. A large figures will be down. Exact statements pilchard catch column where, in De- part of the Dominion's catch is exported must wait upon the completion of cember, 1936, there was an entry showing to the United States. annual statistical returns which pro- more than 19,800 hundredweights. but, as ducers and fisheries officers make up a matter of fact, pilchard fishing in De- One of the best of reasons why people alter the close of each year, when there cember is quite the exception. engaged. in sedentary occupations should is opportunity, vvhich does not occur eat fish frequently is because fish are \\ hen operations are in actual progress, More Nova Scotia Cod more easily digested than meats and, at to check over the figures. On the Atlantic coast the month's the same time, contain a great deal of In December the combined landings on features were a jump of more thah 26,000 nourishment. Their vitamin and mineral the two coasts amounted to approx- hundredweights in Nova Scotia's cod content makes them healthful, too. imately 715,000 hundredweights and catch, which mached 86,900 hundred- landed value to S813,700—a gain of about weights all told, and an increase of more Much the greater part of Canada's $1,000 in the latter case and, as already than 6,100 hundredweights in the quan- catch of scallops is taken in waters off pointed out, about 140,000 hundred- tity of lobsters taken in the waters . of Digby County, Nova Scotia. Most of weights in catch. The totals have been the same province. In New Brunswick, the shipments to market are made in made up from unrevised monthly reports the only other province where any lobster wooden kegs holding twelve or fourteen received by the Dominion Department of fishing was in progress during the month, gallons of shelled scallops; actually, it Fisheries and the comparisons are with the catch decreased a little. is only the muscle of the scallop that is unrevised totals for December, 1936. By (Continued on Pane 4) marketed. 4 FISHERIES NEWS BULLETIN Eel Grass Does Better MUSTARD, BURNT SUGAR Irrigation and Fish END COOKING ODOURS Eel grass on the Atlantic coast hasn't Irrigation has done much for the yet succeeded in overcoming the disease orchardists in British Columbia's Okan- which nearly wiped it out a few years Burning Orange Peel Another Effective agan Valley but if the fish culturist hadn't ago but reports to the Dominion De- Agent Says Fish Cookery come along the fruits of the irrigation partment of Fisheries from its officers in projects would have included scarcity of the Maritime provinces and the Magda- Demonstrator trout. At first glance the relationship len islands indicate that the situation between irrigation and fish population improved a bit in 1937. If improvement Mustard may be a condiment but it may not be apparent but the fact is that For instance, it is continues, it may not be very long be- has other uses, too. an unavoidable a.ccompaniment of stream an effective agent in destroying "fishy" fore fishermen will again be able to diversion was the destruction of trout add something to their earnings by har- odours on dishes. Add some dry mustard, spawning grounds. Fish cultural work vesting this marine grass, which can be or a generous quantity of washing soda, by the Dominion Department of Fish- used in the manufacture of insulating to the dish water, says one of the eries took care of the situation. Suitable cookery demonstrators on the staff of material. As a matter of fact, in one waters were stocked with trout eggs and locality some harvesting was undertaken the Dominion Department of Fisheries, fry and fingerlings and as time went on during the past year. The improvement first rinsing the dishes in salt water. In the fish population was built up. The in the condition of the grass in 1937 was preparing fish for the oven, the dem- result has been that trout fishing in the not everywhere apparent but in some onstrator adds, it is a good plan to rinse Okanagan has improved steadily and the areas there was a distinct change for the the hands first in cold water, thus clos- fisheries inspector for the district reports ing the pores to odours, and to cover the better. This was the case, for instance, that there was still further improvement in the Magdalen islands, especially in working surface of the table with a layer in 1937. "The number of sportsmen the northern section, and in parts of of paper. visiting the lakes continues to increase," Cape Breton and on the eastern main- Ridding the kitchen of "fishy smells" he wrote in his 1937 review, "and numer- land of Nova Scotia. On Grand Manan may be done very easily by burning or ous excellent catches and large fish have island, in Southern New Brunswick, the caramelizing a little sugar in a saucepan been reported." The case of Beaver fisheries inspector reported "vast im- in the oven or on the top of the stove. Lake is perhaps outstanding. It was first provement." An interesting point made A sprinkling of coffee grains on the top stocked by the department in 1926 and a by one officer, a Cape Breton inspector, of the hot stove, or burning a piece of couple of years later the sportsmen were was that the greatest change was in areas orange peel on the stove, will accom- landing some fish. In 1932 the anglers' where freshwater brooks ran into the p2ish the same purpose. Of course, there catch was about 800 trout. Since then sea and there was low salinity. is less spreading of cookery odours when the trout population in the lake and con- the oven-cooking method is followed nected waters has evidently increased than when the frying pan is used for fish steadily and several thousand fish are cookery. now taken every year with rod and fly. 71,700,000 Cans ! What happened in the Okanagan area held Chums, and 321,500 cases were through the federal department's efforts Sockeyes, the most valuable of the five is another case of the proven usefulness Stack a thousand one-pound cans species of Pacific salmon. About 132,- of fish culture. together and they's make quite a pile but 500 cases of Cohoes (including Blue- the salmon put up in British Columbia's backs) were canned and 15,500 cases of canneries in 1937 would make a pile SUBSTANTIAL INCREASE-Con. Springs. Most of the catch of Springs The more than 71,000 times as big. goes into the fresh fish trade. Salmon Total landings by the lobster fisher- year's pack, in other words, would fill cannery output also included a few hun- men of the two provinces were 19,560 one-pound approximately 71,710,000 dred cases of canned Steelhead trout. hundredweights but they were worth, in cans. Or, expressed in terms of the Steelheads are never put up in large landed value, only $281,260, as against a trade, the pack was the equivalent of quantity. value of $323,300 for a catch of 13,500 about 1,494,000 cases, holding forty- hundredweights in the December before. eight pound cans each. That's a good Haddock do not occur in Canada's deal of salmon, and it represents a good deal of work given to fishermen, c,a.n- Pacific coast waters but only in the Much the greater part OVER 44,100,000 POUND CANS-Con. nery employees, can makers, case makers Atlantic area. these countries include only the particular and other people who do tasks connected of the catch is landed by Nova Scotia which are linked with them directly or indirectly with Canada's big fishermen. varieties Great Britain, for instance, bu3's Pacific salmon fishery. The 1937 salmon here. Cohoes, Pinks and Chums, as well ea pack in British Columbia, where practi- Pilchards occur in abundance in Brit- Sockeyes, and so, for another example, cally all of the Dominion's production i:=h Columbia waters but are not present does South Africa. of canned salmon takes place, was not off Canada's Atlantic coast. They are as large as the output in 1936-several the same fish as are known in the United hundred thousand cases smaller, as a States as "California sardines." Most of matter of fact-but even at that it the British Columbia catch is used in Research by Canadian fisheries scien' topped the average for the five-year the production of fish meal and oil but tists has shown that oil from the liver of period, 1932-36, by something like 25,000 some of the fish are canned and a few the dogfish, or grayfish, is of value for blending with other oils in the produc- cases. More than a third of it consisted are marketed fresh. Their flesh is nour- tion of medicinal preparations. of Pink salmon, nearly 450,000 cases ishing but oily. FI.SHERIES 1VEWS BULLETIN

Dfinister : Published Monthly by the Department of Fisheries; Deputy Minister Hon. J. E. MICHAUD. M.P. Ottawa, Canada W. A. FOUND

Vol. IX FEBRUARY, 1938 No. 100 FISHERY IMPROVED BY CONTROL, CATCH CANADIAN SARDINES LIMITS FOR PACIFIC HALIBUT RAISED WORLD TRAVELLERS Increase of 2,000,000 Pounds in Quantity of Fish Per- mitted to be Taken in Coming Season-Half of Little Fish in Cosy Tins Worth Big Sum Increase Assigned to Area Frequented in Dominion's Fisheries Export Mainly by British Columbia Business Fishermen For small fish, Canada's sardines take a big place in the country's export Announcement has been made at of the Aleutian Islands-there are no trade. They're the smallest fish landed Ottawa that the halibut catch limit catch limits since in the former the in the Dominion's commercial fisheries for the Pacific fishing season which fishing is not on a large scale and in but snugly packed in tins they travel opens on April 1st has been increased the latter practically no fishing for to many export markets and last year's by a million pounds in each of the halibut goes on. travellers to these other countries were principal fishing areas, and that's an Increase in the catch limits for worth $694,000. That is big business to announcement significant of what can Districts 2 and 3 is the main change be done in fish which individually be done to build up a fishery by made in the regulations for this year's measure only three or four inches in sound control. It means that inter- season. Another change made by the length. national control of the North Pacific commission, which operates under a Of course, there were a good many halibut fishery by a commission repre- treaty between the Dominion and the sardines in the 1937 shipments. Includ- sentative of Canada and the United United States, is designed to assist in ing the weight of the light cans in States is enabling the fishermen to eliminating congestion of landings from which the fish were packed, the year's add to their earnings by making larger District 3 at the close of the season. exports weighed more than 78,600 catches from stocks of fish which were Under this new proviso a vessel clear- hundredweights and it takes many formerly nearing depletion. ing on or immediately before the final millions of sardines to weigh that much. British Columbia halibut boats fish date on which departure for District 3 More than a third of the shipments mainly in what is known as Commis- is permitted will be allowed a period went to South Africa. Next to South sion District 2 or, roughly stated, in of ten days from time of clearing in Africa the biggest single buyer was the waters off Southeastern Alaska, which to go to sea. Australia, but the sales to Australian British Columbia, and the northern One other change prohibits the use importers were less than half as large part of the State of Washington. of bottom set nets in halibut fishing. as those made to South Africa, which Since 1932, when regulation of the This type of gear has not so far been increased its purcha,es substantially fshery by the commission was begun, employed in Pacific halibut fishing but over those made in 1936. A dozen and the seasonal catch limit for this commission investigations have indi- more other countries were also buyers district has been 21,700,000 pounds. cated that its use would be detrimental from the Dominion. Now, with the fishery improved as a to the fishery. Canada's sardine fishery is confined Remaining chabges in the regulations result of the control methods which to the Atlantic Coast, just as the deal only with matters of administra- have been followed, the limit for the pilchard fishery, for example, is entirely tive detail. 1933 season goes up to 22,700,000 in Pacific waters. Canning of sardines Pounds. It doesn't take long to say rfud sharks, which are of value because is even more localized than the catch- "one million pounds," but a million of the oil content of their livers, are ing. Every poi:nd of them packed in Pounds means a good deal of fish, caught by fishermen in the Prince the Dominion is put up in one section after all, and the change to increase Rupert_ area of British Columbia by of Southwestern New Brunswick, where their landings by this amount will using sturgeon hooks baited with sal- the business has grown to be very mean substantial gain to the British mon waste or waste meat. Porpoise important. The fish used in the Columbia fishermen. blubber and meat has also been found canning are little herring or sardine In Commission District 3, which lies a satisfactory bait. herring. The herring runs are very off Alaska, to the north and west of large in that part of the country and District 2, the catch limit for the the sardine herring are taken in great During 1936 there were 18,359 men coming season his likewise been quantities in devices known as weirs, employed on fishing vessels and boats increased by a million pounds, bringing which project out from shore and are it up to 25,300,000. in Nova Scotia while 3,679 persons made of small poles or posts, netting In the two other commission districts were employed in fish canning and and brushR-ood with a bag or trip at -one south of Willapa Harbour in the curing establishments. The numbers the outer end. Swimming along near State of Washington and the other were greater than those for the year the shore many of the sardines make made up of Bering Sea and the waters before. (Continued on page 4) 2 FISHERIES NEWS BULLETIN NEW BRUNSWICK SMELTS AND PACIFIC STARS FISHED SIX HOURS, CLAMS JANUARY SEA FISHERIES MADE 950-TON CATCH Big Rise in Pacific Coast Clam Fishery Returns and Substantial Increases in Smelt Catch and Herring Weight Down Seines when Val. Value in Eastern Province—January couver Island Fishermen Strike Lobster Value Reflects Price Good Run of Fish Drop—Month's Total Sea Put out the nets at the right time Catch Rises and right place and they'll come in heavily weighted with fish, as seines lI ti proved once more in the Quatsino Sound As compared with results in Januaty, was less by 1,200 hundredweights than area of Vancouver Island on one 1937, Canadian sea fisheries landing,s it had been in January, 1937, and when recent 1 this reduction fishing day when they landed 950 tons showed some increase in January, '38, in landings was accom- of herring between six o'clock in the but there was a small decrease, panied by a sharp fall in price the I I evening and twelve midnight. That d approximately $20,000, in the total value of the catch to the fishermen, as seems like a lot of fish, and it is, even landed value of the catches. landed, came only to $74,700, as when it represents the catch of a Figures made up from unrevised compared with slightly more than number of fishermen. Perhaps the monthly reports received by the $174,100 a year ago. In the '37 month quantity looks bigger still when Dominion Department of Fisheries the Nova Scotia catch had a landed expressed in pounds-1,900,000; but, of 379,500 value of nearly $30 per show the month's catch as hundredweight; course, the herring runs are big in hundredweights, roundly stated, or in January, 1938, the figure averaged a British Columbia waters in the normal about 65,700 hundredweights more than little less than $16. season and a semer may capture a the landings of a year ago. Landed Scallop prices, too, were lower than good many tons of fish in a single value totalled $545,000, in round figures. a year ago and though the Nova "set" of his net. British Columbia and New Bruns- Scotia fishermen increased their land- Put down the nets, too often, take wick showed gains on the dollar side, ings somewhat their total dollar return too many fish, and there might be and there was a slight increase in showed quite a sharp drop. In most risk of depletion of the fishery, and Prince Edward Island landed value, of Nova Scotia's other January fisheries the fishing regulations are framed SO too, but there was a drop of $100,000 the returns for the month did not as to guard against that very thing. in the case of Nova Scotia and a small show very much change from those of Vancouver Island waters are the scene decrease in Quebec value. On the the January before. Cod catch of British Columbia's largest herring catch side of the record there was a decreased somewhat but its landed fishery- and the fishing regulations made rise of nearly 71,000 hundredweights value increased by three or four by the Dominion authorities set quotas in British Columbia, thanks mainly to thousand dollars. Haddock landings for the landing,s of seine-caught ffsh in bigger catches of herring and clams, decreased, too, but the dollar return different areas off the island. Not only and Prince Edward Island's fishermen dropped only $500 or so. The lobster, are catch quotas established but the increased their total landings a little. cod, haddock, and scallop fiaheries were fishing season closes at a specified date In the three other sea fisheries prov- the rnost important Nova Scotia fish- whether quotas have been reached or inces the catches fell off, though it was eries in progress during the month. not and, more than that, fishing may only in Nova Scotia that the reduction New Brunswick's lobster fishermen be ordered stopped in any of these was of any size-5,300 hundredweights. shared the ill fortune brought their areas at any date during the season By provinces, the month's figures Nova Scotia comrades by the fall in if cessation is found desirable in the were as follows, round numbers being lobster prices. In New Brunswick interests of conservation. Action of given in all instances:— lobster fishing takes place on only a this latter kind was taken in the case BritWI Columbia comparatively small strip of the coast of several areas during the herring Catch.. .. ..Cwts. 231,400 during January and the month's catch season just past. Landed Value ...... 3 138,500 is never very large. This year it was Nova Scotia not as large as in 1937 and, Not Sectional Creatures Catch.. .. ..Cwts. 100.540 with prices Landed Value ...... $ 268.450 reduced, it had a total landed value of Herring are caught in large quantities New Brunswick 85,140, as against slightly over $15.400. on Canada's Atlantic Coast as well as Catch.. .. ..Cwts. 33,740 in British Columbia, with New Bruns- Landed Value.. .. 125,040 Fickle Fates wick the largest eastern producer, but Prince Edward Island However, if the fates weren't kind fiacre are differences in the uses made Catch.. .. ..Cwts. 3,100 two coasts. Landed Value ...... $ 8 600 to the lobster fishermen, they treated of the catches on the Quebec New Brunswick's smelt fishermen rather East and West alike, some of the e Catch.. .. ..Cwts. 1 800 better than they had treated them a are marketed fresh but most of them Landed Value ...... $ 7,300 y-ear ago. The smelt fishery is the are sold in processed forms. Where one of prime January importance in the difference in uses on the two Some Price Decreases the province. This year the month coasts comes in is that on the western The substantial decrease in Nova brought an increase of about 3,900 coast most of the herring are used for Scotia landed value total was due in hundredweights in catch and some rise dry-salting and for making fish meel chief part to a drop in the price of in price. The net result was that smelt and oil whereas in the Atlantic arm lobsters. The lobster catch for the landed value totalled more than the catch is largely used for the smoked province, about 4,700 hundredweights, (Continued on page 4) (Continued on page 3) FISHERIES NEiVS BULLETIN 3

5,000 PRAIRIE FOLK SEE FISHERIES Cookery Expert Gives MOTION FILM IN THEATRE ON WHEELS rcE Her Fish Loaf Recipe isheries Department Picture Tells Story of Fishing Many fish cookery recipes are very Ya>M Industry to Many Audiences in Travelling Theatre simple, calling for fish and little else, -Brings out Fish Food Merits-Teachers but Canadian fish foods lend them- selves to numerous variations in treat- Praise Film's Value ment and one of the cookery demonstrators on the staff of the Dominion Department of Fisheries time Scenes in the Canadian fishing advantage of the opportunity to obtain suggests a "fish loaf" which may be iein industry were brought vividly before from those in charge of the car copies =ers the eyes of more than 25,000 Prairie of the departmental cook-book, Any new to a good many housewives. The Day a Fish Day. In writing to the loaf requires several ingredients and lound Province people in the latter half of department at Ottawa regarding the is therefore not quite so inexpensive ecent 1937 when the motion picture, Food and opinions upon it which as some other fish dishes, and is per- tons for Thought, made for the Dominion picture L the Department of Fisheries by a Cana- were expressed by members of the haps not quite so quickly prepared, Forestry Association but it is appetizing and nourishing and That dian motion picture company, was audiences the even shown in a western "theatre on wheels." officer who travelled with the car adds variety to family menus. It has of a The travelling theatre, operated by the referred particularly to remarks made this advantage, too, that any kind of Canadian fish may be used in making the Canadian Forestry Association, is a by teachers. Many teachers, he said, and it may be served either hot when specially equipped railway car which "commented on its value to their pupils. it or cold. it, of is hauled here and there to many of As one principal of a school of around a° m the smaller communities on the 300 pupils put it, `we could spend a "In making this fish loaf," the xmal prairies and to some of the larger week in the class-room telling of demonstrator said, "a tablespoon of re a communities, too. In this- moving Canada's fishing industry and leave far flour is first added to a tablespoon of single sbom-house different educational pro- less with the children than they have melted butter and the two are cooked grams are given and under arrange- learned in watching Food for Thought: together for a minute; then one cup take ments made with the association by We failed to meet a single teacher," of hot milk is added while the mixture t be the Fisheries Department a few months the officer's report continued, "who did is stirred constantly. Next I put in and ago the fish picture was shown to 172 not speak highly of the picture. Other sufficient salt and pepper to suit the d so audiences along a route which covered adults attending often made favourable taste and after that comes the addition ;hing. slightly more than 1,000 miles. The comments," and added that the picture of two cups of cooked fish, two beaten scene picture will be on still more programs did a great deal to bring the merits eggs, one cup of bread crumbs, one Via,, in coming months when the theatre of fish foods to their attention. chopped hard boiled egg, two chopped made has begun its 193S itinerary. pickles, and three tablespoons of uotas Presentation of the film is one of parsley. sh in FISIIED SIX HOURS-Cont. the steps taken by the Department of °«'hen these additions have been only Herring are Fisheries to widen popular interest in and pickled fish trade. made and the ingredients have been the the Dominion's fishing industry and by canned on both coasts and in New well combined .the mixture is poured date making nutritive and health Brunswick there is also a big annual into a greased baking dish or mould, d or their values better known, to increase the output of canned sardine herring, in the dish is placed in a pan of boiling may demand for Canadian fish foods. Of addition to the production of canned water and put in to cool, in a moderate these course, it is not only in a travelling round herring and canned kippers which oven. An hour's cooking time is cassa theatre and in the Prairie Provinces takes place in several Atlantic districts. required. When cooking has been i the alone that Food for Thought is shown. British Columbia puts up some smoked finished the loaf is unmoulded. a of It has been on the programs of several herring and a lfetiv of the pickled fish Whether one likes it better hot than case hundred movie houses in towns and but its catch goes mainly to the dry- cold or the other way 'round is a sring cities in the different provinces and it salting plants, whence in the processed matter of individual taste:' Is listed for presentation at a number form it goes to the Orient, and to the of other theatres. The picture shows reduction plants for the manufacture Cook Book for Women scenes from fishing operations on both of meal and oil. The Atlantic provinces tities This particular recipe, by the way, coasts of the country and scenes from turn out some herring meal and oil does not appear in the department's 41 as the inland fisheries as well. It is but in smaller quantities than the runs- cookery booklet, "Any Day A Fish equipped with sound and as the film Pacific plants. , but Day," but many others do. A copy slips by the audiences hear the narrator Taking both coasts together, the made of the booklet, either in the English tell something of the industry and the herring fishery ranks well up in the may be obtained Dasts• or French printing, fine foods which the fishermen make scale of importance of Canadian fish- by any Canadian woman, free of f,:h In '36, for example, the sea available to consumers at home and eries. charge, on application to the Depart- them of the Dominion abroad. herring production ment of Fisheries, Ottawa. There had a marketed value totalling slightly two «'omen's Institutes and other organ- Much Educational Value more than $2,330,000. Freshwater stern izations of women may have a copy Included in the audiences which herring added something like another d for quarter of a million dollars to the of the cook book sent to each of their meal attended showings of the picture in the members if they forward to the depart- travelling theatre last year were many family contribution to national produc- area tion figures, with Ontario and Quebec ment a list of the names and addresses iokea school children and school teachers, as of the women. '^Iell as housewives who also took entitled to the credit. 4 FISHERIES NEWS BULLETIN Salmon Roe Production TUNA TALES OYSTERS IN THE SHELL

Doubled in Four Years Fishing with rod and line off western 11 or so ago, a Pay for a barrel of Canada's Atlantic Nova Scotia, a year oysters and how many oysters will you Caviar made from sturgeon eggs is visiting sportsman landed the biggest of its kind, tuna ever caught by an angler any- get? In quantity the buyer will obtain V the best known product not less than two and a half buoluois and Canada markets two or three where—a 956-pounder. Last summer of legal size. The thousand pounds of it every year, but another world record was made in the of oysters oyster in the same district when a women angler inspection system administered on the the major use of fish eggs Atlantic Coast by the Dominion Dominion nowadays is in the prepara- landed a tuna weighing 7611 pounds-- Do. tion of salted salmon roe which is the biggest tuna ever taken by a partment of Fisheries under the Fish shipped, for the most part, to markets woman. Angling for tuna has become Inspection Act sees to that. But what in the Far East. AU of the salmon increasingly popular in Nova Scotia in number of oysters will the barrel eon• roe processed is packed in British the past few years. Of course, tuna tain by count? Nature and the buyer? Columbia and between 1933 and 1936 are also landed by commercial fisher- preferences both enter into the deter. mination that (final figures for 1937 have not been men, half a million pounds or so a of question. Nature completed) there was a hundred per year. A few of the fish taken doesn't make all oysters of the same cent increase in the output. In the commercially are canned but nearly all size or shape and buyers may differ earlier year the output was 531,500 of them are marketed fresh. in their opinions as to whether large, pounds; it increased in the following medium-sized or small oysters are the year, increased again in 1935 and in best. By very close culling it is possible for the oyster shipper to place 1936 it had risen almost to 1,172,000 NEW BRUNSWICK SMELTS—Con!. pounds with a marketed value of over more than 700 marketable oysters in $107,500, as compared with less than $30,100. In one year previous to 1933 a barrel, but this is not easy-, especially $75,700 in the preceding January. if the oy-sters are thick. Perhaps in there had been an even larger pro- There were relatively large increases, duction than in '36 but that was an most cases the trade wishes 600 or so exceptional state of affairs, not a case too, in the returns from the New oysters in. a barrel. On the other hand, Brunswick alewife fishery but the some buyers call for large oysters and of culmination of successive increases. herring fishing returns fell away-. So a by-product the number in the barrel must neeai- The salmon roe is did returns from the cod and clam sarily decrease accordingly. Any num- of British Columbia's big salmon fisheries. canning operations. If market demand ber below 400, however, is unusual and warranted expansion of roe collecting In Prince Edward Island, as in New the stock in cases of this kind is not and salting, the output, of course, Brunswick, the smelt fishery had first likely to be equal in quality to ship- could be made much larger than it is place in January, and in Quebec it was ments having higher counts to the at present since so many salmon are the only sea fishery in progress. Neither barrel. Some shippers grade their out. in Quebec nor the island province, put by count, as, for instance, one taken in the Pacific Coast fishery. In yesr 1936, for example, between 28,000,000 however, did it produce quite as large producing organization which last and 29,000,000 salmon were caught, a returns as in January of last year. set up three grades, one guaranteeiht 300 oysters to each barrel, aneths large percentage of them egg-bearers. More Herring Tok-en However, the outlets for the salted roe 500 and the third 700. The 300-cou:n have so far been limited, the sales British Columbia herring fishermen grade brought the lowest price, quite being made mainly in the Orient had catches totalling nearly 184,200 a bit the lowest, and the 700 grade the although there have been some small hundredweights to their credit when highest. shipments to France and Germany. January ended, an increase of some- thing like 48,700 hundredweights but as For shipping purposes the eggs, after CANADIAN SARDINES—Conf. salting, are packed in wooden boxes herring are not one of the higher- containing from 100 to 120 pounds of priced fish the increase in production the mistake of exploring these strange roe each. brought an increase of only $4.200 or obstacles and when they do that they so in the landed value total. The have taken their first step toward feature of the month in Pacific coast making a trip to foreign lands in ee Prince Edward Island's fisheries pro- operations was a great jump in clam tins. Perhaps the trip may be tO duction has averaged $929,580 annually catch and value. distant lands or perhaps to some Calla- during the past five years. Lobsters In January, 1937, the British Columbia dian city, town or village for there is,s account for by far the great,er part of clam landings were 2,910 barrels and big domestic business, of course, 10 the dollars and cents return from the their value as landed was a trifle more these canned fish. island's fisheries. than $5,100. This year the catch jumped to 12,370 barrels and value per In the early days of the Canaclie: barrel went up, too, so that aggregate fishing industry whales were taken iD Most people may think of fish scales landed value was $60,470. the Gulf of St. Lawrence waters ed as worthless, and, indeed, as only a nui- off the Labrador coast. Whaling is le sance to the housewife, but herring confined to the Pacific coast where the scales marketed by New Brunswick fish- Inland fisheries production in Que- are the Sperm, SulPhur species landed ermen last year brought a return of bec last year was valued, all told, at a Fin and Hump. The Sei whale 10 $12,100. Scales of the herring are used little more than $617,000 and of this landed in fairly large numbers a fee in the production of pearl essence which, amount the eel catch accounted for over years ago, but is now taken only Del in turn, is used in manufacturing artificial $140,100. Quebec is Canada's largest sionally. The Right and Bottlenose et pearls and pearl knife handles. producer of eels. also taken occasionally _FISHER.TES 1^^ WS BULLETIN ^linister: Publish.ed Alonthly by the Department of Fisheries, r)epu r_y Minister llon. J. E. MIL'HALrD. M.P. Ottawa. Canada w..1^. rOt!NrT

Vol. IX MARCH, 1938 No. 101 FISHERIES EXPORT BUSINESS AGAIN CERTAIN FINS GONE SHOWED GAIN IN 1937, UP 13 PER CENT SALMON WORTH MORE Trade of $28,833,000 Biggest since 1930-Increase of Marked Fish Animate Counters in Further Nearly $3,500,000 over Figures for 1936-All Classes Check of Atlantic Salmon's Migration of Fisheries Products Contributors to Gain Habits

Canada's export trade in fisheries were only slightly less than S13,981,000 in Thousands of salmon swimming about products isn't yet back to the level of value, as against S12,910,100 in the year in 'Maritime province waters have cer- the world's pre-depression days, but it is before. Similarly, there was an increase tain fins missing and they're worth more well on the way. of a little more than S928,000 in the sales money-a dollar more each-because of For the calendar year 1937 this export to Great Britain, which amounted to that. business totalled S2S,833,900, roundly S6,6S0,000. They're guides to salmon travel, these stated, exceeding by more than 13 per Gains in All Products fish of the missing fins. Guides to the cent the 1936 total and reaching the travel routes followed by members of liighest mark since 1930. The '37 in- Shown by classes of products the 1937 their family on setting out to see life. crease over '36 trade was nearly $3,500,- export business was as follows, the odd Or perhaps a better description of them 000 or, to give the exact amount, S3,- figures being dropped in all cases: is that they are animate counters in a 475.733. Fresh and Frozen Fish.. $12,182,300 new test check of salmon characteristics. As told by compilations made from Canned Fish.. . 10,608,800 They take on a dollar's extra value 3,982,400 official records, the story of Canada's Dried, Smoked, Pickled. because the Dominion Department of 3Siscellaneous Products. 1,210,300 Fisheries wants to know the story they fisheries export trade since 1930, when Oils ...... 819,800 the world-wide economic tempest had have to tell. The Department will pay already begun, is related to this table The sales of canned fish showed an the money for particulars as to the cap- which shows the business year by year increase of more than S1,400.000 and the ture of each one of these marked fish in round figures: sales of fresh and frozen fish exceeded that makes the mistake of wandering 1930...... $31,845,000 the 1936 mark by a little more than into a fisherman's net or grabbing at the 1931...... 25,830,000 S1,000,000. The value of the exports of fly that conceals the angler's hook. 1932 ...... 18,736,000 dried, smoked and pickled fish was some These salnipn didn't lose fins by acci- 1933 ...... 20,206,000 5379,000 greater than in the earlier year. dent but through man's design. That is 1934...... 22,486,000 The business in products in the "mis- 1935 ...... 24,839,000 how it is that the department's fish cul- 1936 ...... 25,358,000 cellaneous" class, fish meals being the ture people can read the story that the 1937...... 28,833,000 most important commodity in this group, captured fish will tell. The fish cultur- was about 5375,000 more than in 1936 ists reared these fish at departmental So far as 1937 trade is concerned, there and the business in fish and whale oils hatcheries in New Brunswick and Nova are one or two points of particular in- increased by `nearly $350,000. Scotia in the past few years and then terest. One is that the trade in each of set them free as fingerlings in different the major classes of Canadian fisheries "Fish is one of the most valuable salmon streams. Before the little fish products was greater than it had been in forms of foods," says Dr. R. E. Wode- were freed, however, certain fins were Another is that the the preceding year. house, Deputy Minister of National clipped off each one of them-a painless total increase was not due to improved Health for Canada, "containing as it piece of business, by the way. Different business with one or two big customer does the same constituents as meat, but sets of fins were taken off in different countries, but that sales to most of the in a more digestible form. . . . It is cases. The adipose or back fin and the export markets showed gain. particularly valuable for children on ac- right pectoral, or the fin from the right The United States and the United count of its vitamin content. . . :" hand side of the body, came off in some liir.,dom continued to be the Domin- instances, the adipose and left pectoral ion's bcst customers and the trade with Any Canadian woman may obtain a in others, the adipose and right ventral each of these countries increased. At the fish cook book, free of charge, in either in still other cases, and some fingerlings same time, the sales to other countries English or French, by writing to the lost the adipose and left ventral. The were also rising. In 1936 the exports Department of Fisheries, Ottawa. ventrals are the fin, on the under side shil,hed to these "other countries" had a of the body. value of 56,696,000, but in 1937 the busi- Canada's exports of fish and whale ^.^s amounted to SS,173,000-a botter- oils in 1937 were valucd at SS50,000, il'here Did They Travelq ment of close to 51,500,000, roundly stated. That was an increase With differences in markings identify- The year's_shipments of fish and fish of S350,000 over the figures for the pre- ing the different groups it is pcs.^ible for products tn^the United States market ccding year. (Continued on page {) 2 FISHERIES NEWS BULLETIN PACIFIC COAST FISHERIES RETURNS UP S& PICKLED^ FISH PACK IN FEBRUARY, ATLANTIC FIGURES DOWN 1^7.M1S QUALITY TEST Lessened Production from Lobster, Scallop and Sn?elt Fis: Fishing Main Factor in Cutting Sea Fisheries Only Trifling Proportion of 358,000 Pac[ca;Qs Landed Value for Month-Some Gain in Piclcled Fish, Herring Bloaters, Etc., Aggregate Dominion Landings of Fail to Pass Inspectors Sea Fish and Shellfish Statistics may often be described with W1 some fairness as "dry," but they can tell of the picture, the provincial lobster cod? Lobster, scallop and smelt fishing in a story very clearly in broad outline, as, catch, 740 hundredweights, decreased by Or Atlantic waters did not produce as big for instance, these figures as to inspec- a little more than one-half and the scal- some catches in February as were taken in tion of certain clas^es of fish products lop landings showed substantial reduc- siatv February, 1937, and that state of affairs which were carried out last year in the tion. Lobsters are more valuable, per fi.h i was the biggest single factor in reducing Maritime provinces and the Magdalen hundredweight, than any other species cern the month's landed value return from Islands by inspectors on the staff of the the Dominion's sea fisheries. of fish or shellfish taken by Nova Scotia "A Dominion Department of Fisheries: a go( On the Pacific Coast the February fishermen and when the February catch Barrels and other packages exam landings of sea fish and shellfish showed fell off sharply the landed value return of pickled fish, hard-cured as, fc an increase, in the aggregate, and there from the fishery dropped to S15,800, or smoked round herring, charc was some gain in the landed value return 832,500 below the figure for the '37 frozen smelts and oysters inspected ...... 358,703 and : to the fishermen but the value increase month. Scallop landed value was $19; Empty containers for such durin was more than offset by a decrease in 500, as compared with more than $46,000 products inspected...... 348,055 latter the Atlantic area. The net result was last year. times that the value total for the sea fisheries New Brunswick's fishermen landed After all, though, from the consumer's only of the two coasts, as shown by unrevised more smelts than any other kind of fish point of view it is more important to quan reports to the Dominion Department of during February-the province is Can- know what the inspections showed as to tures. Fisheries, was only $334,000, roundly ada's biggest smelt producer-but not so the quality of the fish and oysters rather been stated, as compared with more than many as in the preceding February or than to have bald information that a inten 5346,000 in the preceding February. Of 9,320 hundredweights as compared with certain large number of packages were course, February is never among the 10,320. On the value side there was a examined. The story in that regard is Th "big" months as regards fisheries produc- decrease of about 511,000 in the return a very satisfactory one. of C: tion. It is at some other times of the from the fishery, with the month's total Competent enforcement of the Fish taken year that sea fisheries operations are at amounting to a little more than 5.36,700. Inspection Act and a sound program of table, their peak. Lobster fishery figures for the province educational work among the fish pro- howe In British Columbia the month's land- also decreased, as already indicated, and cessors has brought steady improvement the L ings ameuntéd in all to about 144,250 so (lid the scallop and clam totals. It is in the quality of products coming under only in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, the act and out of the great number of are o hundredweights-roughly, a 40,000 hun- time dredweight gain, and in landed value they by the way, that February fishing for packages inspected last year-the "pack- anotl On the value side lobsters is permitted under the fisheries ages" were barrels and boxes for the were worth 583,600. able i there was a betterment of about $28,800. regulations, and, as a matter of fact, it most part-only a trifling proportion is on only certain parts of the coast of were found to be below the quality it can The herring, ling cod, and clam fisheries other most to bring about British Colum- those two provinces that lobster traps standards laid down under the legisla- did smok both in catch and dollar are allowed to be set during the month. tion. bia's gains n•ord: Only one fishery, the smelt fishery, Only Few Below Mark return. the ( was in progress in Quebec's sea waters On the Atlantic Coast two of the For example, out of 14,427 barrels of for h during February, and in Prince Edward provinces, Quebec and Prince Edward oysters inspected, only one was rejected with Island it was the principal fishery. In Island, increased their catches and their as below required quality. All told, richnf Quebec the fishermen doubled their landed value figures rose, too. However, 265,555 boxes of hard-cured herring which catch, though this meant an increase to February production from the sea fish- bloaters underwent inspection-and 262, cf he only 1,130 hundredweights and the fish eries of these two provinces is always 005 passed the test! Or to take one more were worth S4,600, as landed-a gain of small and when Nova Scotia and New example: Only 771 out of 41,720 pack- S2.900. Prince Edward Island's smelt Brunswick landings and value fell off in ages of pickled mackerel had to be re- A fishermen, on the other hand, didn't in- the month just past the totals for the jected by the inspectors, who, by the times crease their ^landings-in fact, their total Atlantic Coast as a whole went down way, have been qualified as inspection fir,t catch of 1,030 hundredweights decreased r below the levels for the corresponding officers by courses of special study at sea a little-but landed value, S3,â00, was up period of last year. The drop in coast one of the federal fisheries research slightly. `hoL'll value was something more than $41,000. stations. Of course, in some instances ion's last year the products did not pass in- In Atlantic Provinces cellen No Canadian housewife needs to buy spection until they had been reconcli- follms Several of the Nova Scotia fisheries- imported fish foods "for variety's sake." tioned after failing to qualify for ap• that t the cod, halibut and sole fisheries, for More than sixty different kinds of food proval when first submitted for examina- specie example-yielded bigger returns than a fish and shellfish are marketed by the tion, but cases of this kind were com- Pacifi year ago but, looking at the other side Dominion's own fishermen. (Continurd on page 3) colum FISHERIES NEWS BULLETIN 3 EA FISHING INDUSTRY OF DOMINION UNIFORM SIZE NO TWELVE-MONTHS-IN-YEAR ENTERPRISE RULE WITH SOCKEYE ishing for Many Species of Fish in Prog-ress Throughout all Year—Seasonal Fishing Periods for Other Interesting Variations in Average Size of Species--Table Indicates Times When Fish in Runs of Same Species Production Biggest to B.C. Rivers Fish are like humans in this respect When do Canada's fishermen catch the periods when the production is or- at least, relatives may differ in size cod? Or pilchards? Or halibut? dinarily largest but it is to be remem- though of the same age. Take, for in- Or perhaps the question may relate to bered that fluctuations in abundance are stance. the Sockeye salmon in the runs some other particular species among the common occurrences in all fisheries. The which made their way to British Col- sixty cr more different kinds of food statement that a particular species of umbia's streams last year when returning bh which are taken by the Doniinion's fish or shellfish is tak-en the "Year from the sea. commercial fishermen. 'round" does not necessarily mean that Those that were caught went into "All the year 'round" is the answer in it is caught at all times of the year in cans, or nearly all of them. The can.s, a good many cases—the case of cod, for every fishing area where it occurs, but in turn, went into cases for shipment to example. In the case of other species, simply that catches are made throughout market. Each case held 48 one pound as, for instance, British Columbia's pil- the year in one area or another, or per- cans, or the equivalent. The cases were chard and the scallop of Nova Scotia haps a number of them: uniform in weight, but they weren't all and New Brunswick, fishing takes place (Continued on page 4) uniform as regards the number of sock- during certain months only. In these eye which had been required to fill latter cases it is restricted to certain them. The fish were s.11 of the one PICKLED FISH PACK (Cont.) times of the year, either because it is species—Oncorhynchus nec ka — but differ- only then that the fish are present in paratively few and far between, involv- ent groups of them were, on the average, quantity, for fish are wandering crea- ing all told only slightly more than one of different individual sizes. tures, or because seasonal limits have per cent of the total number of packages Data obtained by British Columbia been set by regulations adopted in the coming before the officers. officers of the Dominion Department of interests of conservation. The Fish Inspection Act is one of two Fisheries show that the number of The times when the principal varieties federal laws under which fish products Sockeye needed to fill a 48-pound case of Canadian food fish and shellfish are are inspected. It applies to pickled ale- ranged from 11.72 Smiths Inlet fish t,o taken are indicated in the following wives, herring, mackerel and salmon 16.6 Butedale salmon. The average table. It should perhaps be pointed out, other than mild-cured salmon, dry-salted number of Sockeye to the case in other 'nowever, that, no matter what the fish- herring, Atlantic oysters, frozen smelts important areas of the province were: ing seasons may be, practically all of from certain areas, and the shucking, Naas River, 12.24, Fraser River, 13-5; the Dominion 's many kinds of fish foods handling and shipping of scallops. Con- Skeena River, 13.58; Rivers Inlet, are obtainable by the consumer at any- tainers used in shipping these products 14-04; and Bella' Cools, 16 • 11. time of the year in one market form or aLso come under the act, as well as fish Perhaps the figures for 1938 will show another. If a particular fish is not avail- curing plants. Under some sections of changes. Fish are rather unpredictable able in the fresh form at a certain time the Meat and Canned Foods Act the creatures. In any case, however, what it can be obtained in some one of several plants putting up canned fish and shell- the figures may be does not make much other market forms—frozen, canned, fish are likewise subject to inspection difference to the consumer, although it smoked , pickled or dried. In other and it is under this latter act that in- may be of some importance to the words, there is no time of the year when spection of cannèt1 salmon is carried on canner. The 48-pound case of British the Canadian merchant cannot obtain at the laboratory maintained at Van- Columbia Sockeye will contain 48 one for his customers Canadian fish foods, couver for this purpose by the federal pound c.ans or their equivalent, no mat- with all that high nutritive value and Fisheries Department. ter how many fish were needed to fill riehnes.-s in vitamin and mineral content them, and, of course, there is no better which makes them such effective builders Experts say that the most common canned salmon anywhere than Canadian cf health and strength. mistake made in fish cookery is over- Sockeye. The other species of canned cooking, A slice of fish an inch or less salmon from the Dominion's Pacitic What the Table Shows in thickne.ss needs only ten minutes' coast—Cohoes, Springs, Pink.s, and A word about the table as to the cooking in a hot oven. Chums—are similar to the Sockeye in time.s when catches are taken. In the nutritive and health value, although the first place, it covers the more important Finnan haddie, one of Canada's im- colouring of their flesh is not so richly sea fish and shellfish only, but consumers portant smoked fish products, contains red. All British Columbia canned sal- !hould keep it in mind that the Domin- about 22 per cent of protein. Other fish mon is subject to inspection by- uni- lon's fishing industry also markets ex- foods also have high protein content, versity-trained inspectors before ship- ollent fre.shwater fish. The letter "A" higher content, indeed, than many other ment to market. following the name of a species indicates foods. that the reference is to an Atlantic Coast Lake Winnipeg, Lake Winnipegosis sPecies and, similarly, "P" stands for Growing children need plenty of Vita- and Lake Dauphin are the sources of Pacific Coast. Words in brackets in the min D. There's no better way to give practically all of the Dominion's present column "Season when Taken" indicate it to them than in Canadian fish foods. production of goldeyes. 4 FISHERIES NEWS BULLETIN

SEA FISHING INDUSTRY (Cont.) CERTAIN FINS GONE (Cont.) the Fish Culture Branch of the depart- FISH ment to say when and where any of the Species Season when Taken marked fish which may now be caught Alewives, A...... January to June had been distributed as fingerling^. Of (Gaspereaux) (April to June) Black Cod, P ...... Year 'round course, the records as to the distribution (June, August to October) and recapture of only a few of the sal- Cod, A ...... Year 'round mon would not tell the fish culture (May to October) people very much, but if a substantial Cod, P ...... Year 'round (sometimes called Gray cod) (January, March, October, November) number are caught an analysis of the Haddock, A ...... Year 'round data of time and place of liberation and (March, -May, June, December) time and place of recapture should throw Hake, A. (1) ...... Year 'round useful additional light upon the problem (including some Cusk) (June to September) Halibut, A ...... Year 'round of the salmon's migratory habits, since (March to October) the ways of the marked fish will be no Halibut, P ...... Fishing season subject to regulation under different from the ways of other mem- a treaty between Canada and the United States. (April to August) bers of their family. Knowledge of the Herring, A ...... Year 'round salmon's behaviour and customary routes (May to October) of travel is valuable, of course, from the Herring, P ...... Year 'round standpoint of both the commercial fisb- (October to February) erman and the sportsman, and valuable, Ling Cod, P ...... Year 'round 1liackerel, A ...... May to November too, for the authorities who must see to (May, June, October) the proper conservation of fish stocks. Pilchards, P ...... July to September (August, September) Information on three specific points is Pollock, A ...... Year 'round hoped for from the check on these (June to October) marked fish. One object of the study is Red and Rock Cod, P ...... Year 'round to ascertain the areas frequented by sal- Salmon, A ...... 11Say to August (June, July) mon from the several rivers in Nova Salmon, P ...... Year 'round Scotia and New Brunswick when they (June to October) go to sea. Another is to add to existing Sardines, A ...... February to December data bearing on the question as to what (April to October) Shad, A. (2) ...... April to October proportion of salmon from a particular (DSay and June) stream return to the same river when Soles, A ...... Year 'round they come back from the sea. The third (January to May, December) point upon which further light is sought Soles, P ...... Year 'round (January to May, December) is what proportion of salmon from a Smelts, A. (3) . :...... Year 'round river where the fish are of the "early (January, February, September to run" type will retain the "early" charac- December) teristic if distributed in a "late run" river Swordfish, A ...... June to September (July, August) as fingerlings. Tom Cod, A ...... Year 'round, except March and April. Fishermen reporting the capture of any of these marked fish should give the SHELLFISH date and place where the catch was Clâms, A (4) ...... Year 'round made. Each report must be accom- (January to April, June, July and October) panied by about three dozen scales from Clams, P ...... Year 'round (January, February, March, December) the left middle side of the body of the Crabs, P. (5) ...... Year 'round fish and pieces of skin showing the scars Lobsters, A ...... Year 'round left by the removal of the fins. A dollar (April, May, June, August, September) a piece will be paid by the department Oysters, A ...... January to May, September to December (October and November) for complete reports. Oysters, P ...... Year 'round Scallops, A ...... January to May, October to December Shrimp, P ...... Year 'round Capital investment in Canada's fihing industry exceeds S45,000,000. Invest- (1) A few hake are also taken on the Pacific Coast. (2) Shad are occasionally taken also on the Pacific Coast. ment naturally fell off during the rrorld's (3) Smelts are also caught on the Pacific Coast, but in comparatively small quantity. economic cyclone of a few years ago, (4) Including quahaugs or hard-shelled clams. (5) Some crabs are also taken on the Atlantic Coast but'the quantity is small. but latterly it has been showing increase again. Food fish and shellfish taken com- Every shipment of British Columbia mercially in the Dominion's sea fisheries canned salmon is inspected by govern- In feeding baby trout at its hatcher)' include, in addition to the species listed ment chemists before it goes to market. establishments the Dominion Depart- in the table: Fish-Catfish, A.; Flound- The word "Canada" embossed on the ment of Fisheries has found that beef ers, A., P.; Octopus (sometimes called lid of a can of salmon means that the liver or beef heart, ground or pulped, Devilfish), P.; Oulachons or Candlefish, product has been approved by the gov- gives the best general results in promot- P.; Skate, A., P.; Sturgeon, A., P.; Tuna, ernment laboratory as fresh, firm, well ing health and growth. Some other A.; Whiting, P. Shellfish-Abalone, P.; packed and in good merchantable con- rations, however, are showing promLing Cockles, A.; Mussels, A.; Winkles, A. dition. results. FISHERIES NEW-5 B ULLETIN Deputy Minister ^,linister. Pubtished 'Monthly by the Department of Fisheries, W. A. FOUND Bon. J. E. RiICHAUD, M.P. Ottawa, Canada

No. 102 vol. Ih APRIL, 1938 REMARKABLE QUALITY SHOWING MADE 25 FILSD WORTH OVER BY BRITISH COLUMBIA CANNED SALMON $6,000,000 EACH YEAR Only Eight Among More than 1,600,006 Cases Inspected by Federal Chemists in 1937 below Marke:. Standard j'T'tlitefish, Pickerel, Trout Leaders Among -Efficient Canning Methods and Inspection Commercial Species in Canada's Law Serve Consumer Inland Fisheries

Chemists on the staff of the federal All Species Met Test Freshwater fish, some twenty-five dif- fer•ent species of them, add six or seven Canned Salmon Inspection Laboratory By species, the numbers of cases at Vancouver inspected 1,635,720 cases found to be up to certificate require- million dollars yearly to the marketed value of Canada's commercial fisheries of canned salmon in 1937 and they found ments were as follows, a few half cases of them unfit for market. production. Six or seven million is much just eight being left out of the picture: Eight, count 'em. less than the annual value of the output P: nl: s ...... 532 , 775 from the Dominion's big sea fisheries, Anybody who is mathematically in- Chums ...... 526,503 but it's a good deal of money just the clined can figure out for himself, or her- Sor?;eyes...... 339,932 Co6^c3 and Blucbacks...... 135,741 same. self, that eight is a trifling fraction of one per cent of 1,635,720. -tcclhead T r o u ' ...... S33 Totals for 1937, are not yet fully made up, but in 1930 the catch from the in- No salmon put up in British Colum- Of the 26,501 cases, exclusive of tips land fisheries of New Brunswick, Quebec, bia, where practically all of Canada's and tails, which fell into the Grade B Ontario, the three Prairie provinces and group the greater number were pinks, output of canned salmon is packed, may the Yukon Territory, the areas where be shipped to market until it has been the others sockeyes, chums, and cohoes. freshwater fishing is carried on commer- inspected by members of the laboratory cially, was valued on the market at staff, university trained chemists. Alain- S6,213,551. The highest figure in recent tenance of the inspection system is one year.,: was CS,5S9,000 roundly stated, in of the steps taken by the Dominion De- 1929. The lowest mark, slightly above partment of Fisheries to make it sure DISTANT WAR CUTS 54,063,000, was touched in 1933, but that of that buyers of Canadian canned salmon CANADA HER^NG PACK was a year when the world's economic the obtain a product of sound quality. apparatus was badly out of kilter. was Under the inspection system there are Like sea fish, different kinds of Cana- o131- three classes into which the salmon may Qu`:put cf .Drysaltedl Fis` Falls in British dian freshwater fish have their different rom fall-the "certificate class," so to speak, flavours, but all of them are nourishing the Columbia as Conflict Disrupts or fish which is found worthy of certifica- and appetizing, with high rating in food cars NChinese Market tion as fresh, firm, well packed and in value. Most of them are marketed only )llar good merchantable condition; Grade B, in the fresh and frozen forms, but a lent or salmon which is sound and whole- War may be bad business for the large part of the catch of goldeyes is some but not quite up to certificate peoples immediately concerned but smoked, some tullibee and a few white- standard; and the third class or fish they're not the only losers. Consider, fish and catfish are also smoked, and brng Which is condemned as unfit for use and for example, the case of the current war part of the shad catch is salted. White- rest- is not allowed to be marketed. Here are in China and British Columbia's herring fish and pickerA come first in import- rld's the figures for the three classes in 1937: industry. ance among the freslncater commercial ago, The British Columbia pack of dry- species, reckoning according to size and ease Cases• value of yearly catch. Lake trout, blue salted herring, as shown by reports to Cert is ed ...... 1,605,770 Dominion Department of Fisheries pickerel, perch, herring and pike are Grade B...... 29,912 the others of the fish coming within the Rr;^^:..t .. ------•- 8 from its Pacific officers, was the smallest her3' higher value brackets. *49-pound cases in twenty years, and cause was as plain )art- as effect. The effect was a pack of The following table lists the principal beef So far as the Grade B lot is concerned only 203,400 hundredweights, roundly freshwater commercial species and the .ped, it may be explained that 3,433 cases stated, as compared with an -average areas in which they ordinarily are taken, not- were packed with tips and tails. Under annual production of more than 661,000 but it may be pointed out in passing >ther the inspection regulations, which are hundredweights in the 1919-193G period, that several of the fish named-for ex- i_ing made under authority of the 1lieat and the cause was the war in China. The ample, eels, salmon, shad-are also taken Canned Foods Act, tips and tails are not Chinese market is the main outlet, prac- in sea fishing operations since they are (Continued on page s) eli;ible for certification. (Continued on page 4) 2 FISHERIES NEWS BULLETIN OVER 3,000 MILES APART—FISHERMEN'S TARDY HERRING CAUSE GROUPS ALIKE IN USING JOINT ACTION LOSS IN lilAGDALENS Vancouver Island Association Markets Mernbers' Catches, Operates Store and Owns Vessels—Cape Weather Man's Ill Temper also Factor in Breton Island Croup Buys and Sells for Reducing 1937 Fisheries Output Fishermen—Other Organizations on in Quebec Islands Each Coast Fish set their own travel schedules and herring did fishermen in the Mag- Vancouver Island and Cape Breton case of one of the groups, a co-operative dalen Islands a bad turn last year by Island may be three thousand miles or association incorporated at L'Ardoise in arrivai. isn't delaying their When their more apart but there is at least this Cape Breton last year. L'Ardoise spring appearance came quite a bit later similarity betwee.n them that groups of a big place and there are other Atlantic than usual, there was a their fishermen have successfully applied fishing communities with larger associa- twofold result: The fishermen lost opportunities of sell- joint action in handling their business tions of fishermen, but the L'Ardoise ing herring, to bank schooners which had Of course, the similarity occurs, story has its interest as showing v,diat affairs. come to the islands for bait supplies and too, between a number of other Cana- kind of a start the organized group was since the fish had spawned along dian communities for there have been able to make. the way they were not in prime condition increasing instances of group action by The association was incorporated in for fishermen in the past few years. May. Between that time and the end smoking when they reached the Mag- of the year, according to a report by the dalen coast. The case of the salmon trailers of the Dominion fisheries inspector for the area The net conFequence of the tardines:s, Kyuquot area of the western island is in which. L'Ardoise is situated, the or- as brought out in the 1937 report made one of the most interesting examples of ganization sold 1,350 barrel3 of pickled to the Dominion Department of Fish- fishermen's co-operative effort. The spring mackerel on terrns which brought eries by its fisheries supervisor for the trailers formed their association in 1930 a better return than individual selling district which includes the Magdalens, with a comparatively- small membership %VP.. S yielding, purchased 3,100 boxes of was that there was a sharp decrease in and its operations began in 1931. There sait and 2,250 empty barrels for its mem- the island's herring catch for the y-ear was steady growth. Last year, as related bers at a saving of about $1,400 and, and with it a drop in dollar return. by a report made to the Dominion De- among- its other activities, obtained The Weather Man, too, gave the Mag- partment of Fisheries by one of the $6,000 worth of flour and feed and sup- dalens' fishermen rather nasty treatment. departmental officers in British Colum- plied these commodities to its members During the year, sa3-s the supervisor's bia, the association had a membership of under conditions which protected the report, "weather conditions, for the most 244, it operated a store for the benefit fishermen from the necessity of selling part, were unfavourable for the success- of its members, maintained seve.ral fish their fish without regard to the market ful earning on of fishing, activities and buying stations on the west coast of the situation in order to obtain money with . . . . srnaller catches of fish were taken island, and owned and operated two which to buy the feed and flour they generally." Total landings of sea fish large, fast carrying craft which col- required. and shellfish were approximately 199,130 lected salmon and other fish at different hundredweights, a decrease of nearly 31,- points for delivery at such market 500 hundredweights from the 1936 catch, centres as Victoria, Vancouver and Whitefish is the most valuable species but prices were a little firmer than in the Seattle. Prior to last year the asso- of fish taken in the inland waters of preceding year so that the marketed ciation used chartered boats for collec- Canada. It occurs in each of the prov- value aggregate, $426,260, was a few dol- tion and delivery work, but in '37 it inces having commercial fresh water lars above the '36 mark notwithstanding entered the ownership ranks. fisheries. the drop in production. In marketing fish for its members the association does not guarantee a set The chief market for swordfish landed Many More Mackerel price for the season, but sells the out- in Canada is in the United States. It put on the best terms obtainable and, Mackerel catch, 39,070 hundred« meets competition from swordfish from weights, was more than two and a hall after deducting expenses, makes returns the other side of the world—Japan. to the fishermen. This plan of operation as large as in 1936, clam landings times is stated to have proven satisfactory. were up, hair seal captures increased hand, Non-members selling their catches Some varieties of Canadian fish are very substantially. On the other through the association are given the sold in «many different ways; the decrease in herring catch was accom- for in- production -same freatment as is accorded to mem- stance, cod may- be obtained fresh in panied by a big drop in cod bers. the whole fish, as fresh fillets, smoked and a fall of close to 2,400 hundred- weights in the quantity of lobsters taken. Among Eastern Example,s fillets, salted hut not dried, dried and a boneless. Cod catch for the islands was only Quite a number of fishermen's asso- little more than 39,000 hundredweights, ciations have gone into business on the as compared with some 53.650 hundred- Atlantic coast, and, of course, there are Manitoba's catch of goldeyes last weights in 1936. other associations on the Pacifie coast year, about 5$5,000 pounds, showed an A feature of the operation in the lob- in addition to the Kyuquot organiza- increase at more than 50 per cent, over ster industry was an increase in the tion. Some of the organized groups in the 1935 figures. A small catch of gold- "shipped in shell" business or, in other the Atlantic area are young, some have eyes was also taken by Saskatchewan words, in the trade in lobsters shipped been active for several years. Take the fishermen. (Continued on page 4) FISHERIES NEWS BULLETIN 3 LADY LUCK CHARY OF SMILES FOR SEA LIKENS MACKEREL TO FISHERMEN IN MARCH AND CATCH FELL TROUT FOR GAMENESS Aggregate Landings of Sea Fish and Shellfish Somewhat Smaller on Both Coasts of Dominion during Month Important Commercial Fish also Bonny than Year A:;o-Landed Value Return Lower Antagonist for An?le► says Fisheries Q^icer

Canadian sea fishermen found Dame gate landed value of about 5266,000. On Fortune rather sulky in March and their the production side there was a decrease Tuna grow to be much bigger than mackerel but these sea-going cousins, total catch dropped below the figures of something over 25,000 hundredweights for \larch, 1937. With catch decreased, and on the value side a decrease of both members of the Scombridae family, total landed value for the month, about E62.000. have this in common that they have q,,)90,0010, showed a drop of somethina In New Brunswick the total catch, a plenty of spirit. "«'hen a mackerel is lile 5130,000. little more than 19,300 hundredweights, hooked," says a fisheries inspector in Nova Scotia in reportinb to S-,i fishing was in progress in the was 2,400 hundred«•eirhts below last Eastern raters of four of the ocean provinces- year's figure but landed value, $18,500, the Dominion Department of Fisheries British Columbia, Prince Edward Island, was only a couple of hundred dollars at Ottawa as to deep sea angling in his New Brunswick and Nova Scotia-and down. The landings of alewives shoz:ed district. "it puts up just as liard a fight unre^-ised reports to the Dominion De- a subatantial increase. Cod, clam, scal- as a large trout." Its taste in bait, partment of Fisheries show that the lop, oyster and herring catches were though, isn't the same as the trout's. A might turn up its nose at a bit landings amounted in all to approxi- also larger than a year ago, though none trout Sardine of salt herring and oatmeal mashed to- mately 236,340 hundredweights, as of the increases were large. but the mackerel would be apainst 313,600 hundredweights in the hndings fell off. gether, corresponding period of '37. No landings Prince î..dï:ard Islands catch was 170 happy about the whole thing. Happy, were reported in Quebec, the other sea hnnd: edweights. that is, until it discovered, too late, that fisheries province, but March is always the bait concealed a hook. an "off" month there. Whether or not there will be much 25 FISII WtTRTH angling for mackerel remains to be seen. Only in the case of Prince Edward OVER ÿ6,000,C00-Con. Island was there a catch increase but So far most of the sea fishing for sport's the Island's fishermen operate on only frequenters of salt water as well as river sake on the Atlantic Coast has been a small scale in March and the increase travellers: angling for Cousin Tuna and one or two But the mackerel is sure was only a hundred hundredweights or Blue Pickerel-Ont. other species. of a place in the Canadian fisheries pic- to. It is at other seasons of the year Carp-Ont., Que. ture because of its importance corumer- that Prince Edward Island's fishing in- Catfish-Que., Ont., 11f an. cially as a nourishing, fine-flavoured fish. dustry has its busy times. Eels-Que., Ont., N.B. It is taken in Atlantic waters only, with In British Columbia the raonth's Goldeyes-Dlan., Sask. Nova Scotia fishermen making much the catch of sea fish and shellfish reached a Herrina Que., Ont. largest catches. Out of total landings total of 92,500 hundredweights, or some Ling-Sask. of 227,600 hundredweights in 1936 about 53,000 less than in the preceding March. Maskinonoe-Que. Landed value, $106,000 in round figures, Perch-Ont., _Man., Que., Alta., 190,600 hundredweights were credited to All told, the mackerel decreased by $76,000. On the catch side, Sask., N.B. Nova Scotia. catch for the year was worth a little the main decreases were in the landings Pickerel-'Man., Ont., Que., Alta. more than SI60,000 in marketed value. of grayfish and herring. Another factor Sask., N.B. contributing to the reduction in the Pike-ASan., Ont., Quo., Alta., The two main forms in which Cana- British Columbia figures was the fact Sask. dian mackerel are marketed are fresh that this year the Pacific halibut season Salmon-Que., N.B., Yukon. and pickled. Fillets of mackerel are did not open until April lst, whereas in Saugers-INlan. also sold, some of them fresh, some 1937 it opened at the middle of March. Shad-N.B., Que. salted. Comparatively small parts of the Smelts-Que. catch are used for canning and for On the Atlantic Coast Sturgeon-Que., Ont., Sask., N.B. smoking. Most of the output of pickled Suckers-Man., Sask., Yukon. mackerel goes into export trade, with the Most of the Nova Scotia fisheries Sask., Alta., D1an., Briti^h West Indian islands the largest }•ielded smaller catches than were taken Trout-Ont., Yukon. buyers. All pickled mackerel, by the from them in bl;uch of last year, al- Tullibee-'Man., Ont., Alta., Sask. way, is subject to government inspection though in a few cases such as the cod Whitefish-Oat., Sask., nian., Alta., before marketing. and halibut fisheries the landings showed Yukon, N.B. some gain. A sharp drop in haddock catch, accompanied by a decrease of Other fish entering into the fresh- nearly 5M,000 in haddock landed value, water catches include alewives, bass, v^as an unfavourable feature of the drum, mullets and grayling. Haddock, hake, pollock, mackerel, n.onth's results. Other important fish- smelts, swordfish and tuna are taken eries to show lessened returns were the only in Atlantic waters in the Cana- lobster and scallop fisheries. Altogether Britain and the United States are dian fisheries, while pilchards, black the Nova Scotia landings from the cari- the major markets for Canada's output cod, red and rock cod, whiting, octopus ous sea fisheries amounted to 121,400 of fish oils. Holland is another import- and oulachons are species taken only hundredweights and they had an aggre- ant outlet. in the Pacific coaA waters. 4 FISHERIES NEWS BULLETIN A LUNCHEON MENU ; ^ MISTAKE IF HOUSEWIVES BASEBALI. TRAINING

Cabbage Salad THROW OUT SALMON OIL CAMP BIG FISH USER Fish Cutlets with Tomato Sauce Bread and Butter Here's a reminder for housewives, two Pineapple Jelly Tea or Coffee reminders in fact, suggested by cookery Major League Athletes Give Fish Foods experts on the staff of the Dominion De- partment of Fisheries: When using Leading Place-Any Day Fhh Fish Cutlets.-Salmon is delicious in canned salmon don't throw away the Day With Them this recipe, but any other Canadian fish oil in the can. Use it with the fish. or shellfish may be used. Flake two cups It's vitamin content makes it valuable of fish and add two cups of thick white to the human body. Nor should the little Batting and fielding averages may sauce, which has first been chilled. (The pieces of bone that may be mixed in sometimes worry team managers at the sauce is made by melting a quarter of a with the salmon be thrown away. In- spring training camps of the major cup of butter, or oil may be used, blend- stead, crush them up and leave them league baseball clubs, but there's never ing in a half a cup of flour, adding two with the fish. Why? Because of their anything wrong with camp appetites- cups of warm milk, and, while stirring mineral content. It is easy to crush except, perhaps, from the business office constantly, cooking the mixture until it them, of course, for they have already standpoint. Hunger is a good sauce, is thick and smooth.) Two teaspoons of been made soft by the cooking process and the players come away from the lemon juice, two tablespoons of onion which takes place during salmon can- diamond workouts as hungry as bears. juice, salt and pepper to suit the taste, ning. and, if desired, two teaspoons of Wor- Take, for instance, the case of the 1938 cestershire sauce, are added to the fish Canadian canned salmon, by the way, Cincinnati Reds, of the National which is then combined with the white is not artificially coloured. Nothing at League. sauce. Form the mixture into cutlets, all is put into the salmon can than the "When the Reds broke camp," says a roll them in finely sifted bread crumbs, fish itself, and a dash of salt. sports writer who was with the team, and bake in a greased pan in a moderate "they had a fair record of twelve games oven. Or fry them in deep fat, having won and six lost. But as far as the S-Con. the fat hot enough to brown an inch DISTANT WAR CIJ T owner of the Tampa hotel where they cube of bread in forty seconds. tically the one outlet, indeed, for herring made their headquarters was concerned, in the drysalted form. When the market they batted a cool 1,000 per cent at the Tomato Sauce.-In making the to- was disrupted by the war in the Orient, dining room table. Whatever their mato sauce to serve with the cutlets, a drop in the output of British Columbia stance on the diamond, they definitely cook together for twenty minutes two drysalting plants was inevitable. did not pull away from the plate in cups of tomatoes, a cup of water, a slice the hotel." of onion, three whole cloves and a half Make illeal and Oil, Too a tablespoon of sugar; melt three table- There were various kinds of foods on In recent years the entire British Col- spoons of butter, blend in three table- the special menus arranged for the umbia pack of drysalted herring has been spoons of flour, and stir in the tomato ball-players, and fish had prominent put up in the Vancouver Island area but, mixture. Cook the combined mixture place. Prominent place daily, as a mat- of course, the salteries do not use all of for ten minutes, adding three-quarters of ter of fact, the press story says. AP- Big quantities of the herring a teaspoon of salt and a dash of pepper. the catch. proximately 175 pounds of fish were used taken by the Island's fishermen are used Strain the sauce before serving. every day, according to the statement of in making meal and oil. In 1937 nearly the man who did the buying for the 725,000 hundredweights of the fish were club. "Any day a fish day" was the TARDY HERRING CAUSE-Con. used in this way by the Island reduction motto among these athletes who must plants and, in addition, some 61,000 get into prime physical condition for the Out of the total catch alive to market. hundredweights brought in from another strenuous league season and kcep that hundredweights more than of 17,304 part of the Province. The plants manu- way. 6,000 hundredweights, or about thirty- factured 613,250 gallons of herring oil five per cent, went into the live lobster Of course, there are the best of reasons and close to 7,400 tons of herring meal. why fish is a first rate food for athletes, trade as compared with slightly less than Reduction plants elsewhere in the Prov- thirty per cent in 1936 and a trifle under and for other people who want to be ince also produced some 670,000 gallons strong and healthy. Fish has high pro• twenty-one per cent in 1935. The pack of herring oil and a little more than of canned lobsters in the islands in '37 tein content, which means that it is a 7,000 tons of herring meal. nourishing food, and the fats of fish was 5,624 cases as against 6,927 in 1936 While most of British Columbia's big and 8,658 cases in 1935. have high energy value. Fish foods have herring catch is used in drysalting and this further merit, which is not common reduction operations, a substantial quan- to all foods, that they are very readily tity is canned and smaller quantities are digested. Then, too, and this is im- Approximately 6,037,000 sport fish smoked. Only a comparatively small portant from everybody's standpoint, eggs and nearly 4,588,000 fry were dis- part of the catch is sold fresh. they contain such health-guarding and tributed in British Columbia streams health-building mineral substances 23 last year by the Dominion Department While scallops are known to exist calcium and phosphorus and iron and of Fisheries. As another step toward on many parts of the Atlantic coast copper and iodine and they also have improving angling in Pacific lakes and and are taken commercially in several valuable vitamin content. Their Vita- streams the Department also destroyed places, the main fishery in the Cana- min D content is especially high, and quite large quantities of predatory dian area at present is located in the that, by the way is one of the reasons coarse fish in some parts of the province. Bay of Fundy off Digby, Nova Scotia. why children should eat fish often. FISHERIES NEWS BULLETIN biinister: Published Monthly by the Department of Fisheries, Deputy Minister Bon. J. E. MICHAUD, M.P. Ottawa, Canada W. A. FOUND

Vol. IX MAY, 1938 No. 103

FISH SHIPMENTS FROM CANADA COASTS ay PRIME FRESH FISH ,he TO DOMINION POINTS SHOW INCREASES ior FILL SALMON CANS rer More than 5,000,000 Pound Rise in Rail Traffic in Fresh ice Frozen and Smoked Products Last Year- Federal Laboratory Inspection Shows 1937 ce, Shipments to United States also Canadian Sockeye Pack even he Better than Before trS. Move Upwards 138 aal Traffic returns show that rail ship- period. In this instance, however, the British Columbia salmon canneries ments of fresh, frozen and smoked fish upward movement was more pronounced must be efficient if their fish is ta get 35 from Canada's two coasts to points in 1936 than in 1937, a condition directly into the cans while still in prime con- ,m, within the Dominion increased sharply opposite to the one observable in the dition of freshness, but they know their ies between 1935 and 1937. case of traffic within the Dominion job, as witness the following facts:— he The spurt in the traffic really came during the three years. When samples representing nearly tey in '37. There was a substantial in- The '35 shipments to the United 272,000 cases of canned sockeyes frorn ed, crease in '36--something like 1,600,000 States—again it is only the traffic in the 1937 pack were inspected by the he pounds—but last year's figures exceeded fresh, frozen and smoked products that chemists of the federal Canned eir those for 1936 by a little more than is in question—were 29.685,482 pounds. Salmon Inspection Laboratory at ely 5,100,000 pounds. In the following year they jumped to Vancouver not a single tainted can in In the first of the three years, 3S,405.511 pounds. They increased again was found in the lot. Tins which 52.255,654 pounds of these fresh, frozen last year but not so greatly and the held fish which wasn't just as fresh on and smoked products were carried by total for '37 was slightly less than as it ought to have been, or fish he Canadian National and Canadian 39,870,000 pounds. Even at that, these which was of questionable freshness, at Pacific freight and express cars to latter figures represent an increase of made up less than one-half of one it- destinations within Canada but when about thirty-four per cent, which is per cent of the total number of cans traffic statements for 1937 had been quite a gain in the volume of any in the samples! ed completed they showed that the freight business. It would be hard for any food indus- of and express shipments for the year try to beat that showing. The samples he had totalled 58,978,680 pounds. The in question were drawn from the parcels he increa.se over the 1935 figures was thus Expert Guidance Offered of 1937 canned sockeye submitted for !st nearly 6,725,000 pounds. inspection, as required by law, between he In each case the totals have been To Help Oyster Farmers J'une 1st and December 31st. As at made up by the Dominion Department selections from each parcel were made of Fisheries from records supplied by at random the sample cans may be the na railway companies. Although it is With a view to assisting Canadian regarded as having been typical of their 3s, only the movement of fresh, frozen and oyster farmers in carrying on their respective parcels. All told, there were smoked products that are shown by work successfully, a series of circulars about 9,500 cans in the sample lots the.se D. particular records, it may no dealing with different points in con- and out of this large number only five a doubt be assumed that reports cover- nection with commercial oyster culture were stale and thirty-two were in the 311 ing shipments of other classes of fish is being prepared by the scientist in doubtful class as to freshness. Only would also show increases in some charge of Dominion Government thirty-seven cans contained salmon that cases at least. oyster research and experimentation on had not been perfectly fresh when the Atlantic Coast. Several of the packed I Montreal Big Purchaser circulars have already been issued and There is something more to be said. t, The larger part of the traffic in the others will follow from time to time. The laboratory had record also of the d fresh, frozen and smoked fish within Distribution is handled by the Dominion results of inspections of 1936 canned Is Canada moves ta Quebec and Ontario Department of Fisheries at Ottawa. socke.ye and was able to make com- centres. In 1937, for instance, the No charge is made for the circulars parison with '37 results. British shiPments to Montreal alone were not which are sent to oyster farmers and Columbia has been putting up sound far short of 14,100,000 pounds. Toronto to persons taking up "farming." They canned salmon for a long time and took more than 11,300,000 pounds. will also be sent to any person directly the 1936 output of sockeye was of good Ls Rail shipments to the United States interested in the oyster fishery in quality, taken as a whole, but the from Canadian coastal points also in- Canada who makes application for laboratory found a "pronounced im- creased substantially in the 1935-1937 (Continued on page S) (Continued an pope 3) 2 FISHERIES NEWS BULLETIN GAINS IN BRITISH COLUMBIA INCREASE Fish Cookery Expert APRIL RETURNS FROM SEA FISHERIES Suggests Some "Don'ts" Total Landings for Dominion above Figure for April of Last Year-Bigger Catches on Pacific Coast Main Negatives and positives both have their places in household management Factor-New Brunswick and Quebec and here are some of the fish cookery Production Up, Too negatives suggested by one of the trained women attached to the staff of the Dominion Department of Fisheries Sea fisheries catch and landed value year ago, except in Prince Edward as lecturer-demonstrators:- for the Dominion were larger in April Island. The big increase was in New Don't buy on price alone when pur- than they had been in the corre- Brunswick where herring landings were chasing supplies for the table. Think sponding month of last year though nearly 20,800 hundredweights, or more of food value, too. Fish is rich in not by very much. Catch totalled than three times the quantity taken in nutritive and health value. the preceding April. Herring made up 315,670 hundredweights, an increase of Don't buy just enough fish for me the total Quebec catch for the month, roughly 8,240, and landed value was meal. It is more economical in the about $840,500, an increase of some with the landings reaching 5,700 hundredweights as against 3,100 in '37. long run to buy, say, one-third more; $6,250. The totals and increases have then there will be a base left for a New Brunswick's landings of alewives, been calculated from unrevised monthly second meal and the average cost of reports made to the Dominion Depart- a little more than 22,000 hundred- the two will be reduced. ment of Fisheries. weights, were double the size of the Don't buy fish which has a strong British Columbia gets the credit for catch taken in April, '37. Clam land- ings in the province also increased but fishy smell. There is some natural most of the increase on each side of odour to fish but if it's strong the fish New Brunswick contributed sardine and cod landings were down. the record. is not as fresh as it should be. Inci- something toward the catch gain and In Nova Scotia there were both ups dentally, a merchant who offers fish in Quebec figures, both as to size of land- and downs, as compared with last year's that condition to his customers doesn't ings and the dollar return to the figures. The cod, haddock, and halibut, know his business or else his standards fishermen, were higher than a year ago among the more important fishes, all of business conduct aren't what they Haddock landed but April never sees very large pro- increased somewhat. should be. duction in the latter province so the value increased and halibut value, close increases, though relatively quite large, to $56,800, was well above the figures Don't wash fish after the skin is off -just wipe it well with a damp cloth did not affect the Dominion totals for the April before. Cod value fell or paper. very much. off a little in spite of the rise in catch. Prince Edward Island fishermen, like The quantity of lobsters taken in Don't be stingy with the salt when cooking fish, use plenty. their Quebec comrades, do not ordin- Nova Scotia waters, however, was only arily land big catches in April but in 15,630 hundredweights, a drop of nearly Don't forget that over-cooking is per- the 1938 month they were less fortunate 4,600 hundredweights, and their value haps the most common mistake in fish than last year and their earnings as landed was $304,000, a decrease of cookery. Guard against it. Tender fish declined with landings. Nova Scotia over $40,000. Scallop landings in Nova tissues require little cooking. production and landed value decreased Scotia were much smaller than a year Don't use too much fat in the cook- quite sharply. ago, 14,725 gallons, shelled, as against ing. It makes the fish harder to digest. Dropping odd figures, the results of 37,540 gallons. Some unfavourable Don't throw away the liquid from the month's fishing, by provinces, were market conditions lessened the inten- canned fish. Use it with the fish. as follows : siveness of scallop fishing. The landed Don't throw away the bones of British Columbia- value of the catch was a trifle more canned fish. Crush them up-they're Catch, cwts...... 50,970 than $18,000. In April, 1937, the value very soft-and mix them with the fish. Landed value ...... $213,780 figure was more than $47,700. Nova Scotia- They contain minerals the human body Catch, cwts...... 191,780 needs. Landed value...... $582,800 Don't use soap when first washing New Brunswick- Catch, cwts...... 65,090 the hands after handling fish. Rinse Landed value...... $ 39,230 Oysters have been found to contain them in hot water but use salt instEad Quebec- Vitamins A, B, D and G, and that is of soap. This will remove any f1sh 5,700 Catch, cwts...... one reason why they are valuable in smell. Landed value.. .. $ 3,340 the diet. In Canada there are oyster Prince Edward Island- Catch, cwts...... 2,130 fisheries on both coasts. Landed value...... $ 1,400 The main contributors to the British Bounties totalling 57,860 were paid by Columbia catch and dollar gains were the Dominion Department of Fisheries ling cod, dogfish and Among the mineral nutrients present on hair seals destroyed in British Col- the halibut, 'lia salmon fisheries. in salmon are calcium, copper, iodine, umbia waters. Bounties were also phosphorus and sulphur. Most of Can- in Atlantic areas. Whether east or In Atlantic Waters ada's catch of salmon is marketed in west, hair seals do considerable damage On the Atlantic Coast the herring the canned form but the fish are also to the fisheries and it is for this reason catch was everywhere larger than a available in the fresh and frozen forms. that there is a price on their heads. FISHERIES NEWS BULLETIN 3 EXPERT GUIDANCE OFFERED TO CONTROL BRINGS 75 PER CENT RISE IN HELP OYSTER FARMERS—Conc. HALIBUT ABUNDANCE IN PACIFIC AREAS them. They are not intended for distribution among the general public. Big Improvement in Condition of Halibut Stocks since One of the circulars already issued of Joint deals with the preparation of concrete- 1930 under Regulation Fishery through coated cardboard collectors for gather- Action by Canada and the United States ing oyster spat. Another relates to floating trays for rearing separate spat Halibut abundance on the main of the State of Washington. The and a third to a cheap method of Pacific fishing grounds off Canada, British Columbia halibut vessels do protecting wood against shipworms. Alaska and the United States main- most of their fishing in Area 2 and The Fisheries Department's prog-ram land was about 75 per cent greater the commission's records show that in for developing an oyster farming in- la.st year than it had been in 1930. 1937 the average catch per unit of gear dustry was initiated in Prince Edward That sentence tells, in brief, the story fished in this section of the convention Island a few years ago when the of a demonstration of the feasibility of waters was 61 pounds, or an increase control of the provincial oyster areas usefully exercising international control of 74 per cent over the 1930 figures. was transferred to the federal authori- of a deep sea fishery common to the All told, the amount of halibut taken ties by the Charlottetown Government. waters off two countries. by the British Columbia fishermen last Very satisfactory progress has been. year was something more than 11,700,000 made on the island, and it is there Under joint control by Canada and that the federal pounds, most of the catch coming from Atlantic oyster research the United States, the halibut fishery station is situated. Following transfer Area 2. It was the biggest British in the North Pacific waters of the of Nova Scotia oyster areas to Columbia catch of halibut in over Dominion continent has been saved from the control something more than a year twenty years. threatened depletion of a few years ago ago, the Department of Fisheries has and the stocks of fish are on the In Area 3 the average catch per unit also begun the development of an increase. of gear fished was 75 per cent greater oy-ster farming program in that prov- Back in 1930 the abundance of than in 1930, according t,o commission ince. In New Brunswick and British halibut in these North Pacific waters figures, and reached 112 pounds. "The Columbia, Canada's other oyster pro- had reached low level, the lowest level of abundance in Area 3," says a ducing provinces, the oyster beds are in the records of the fishery. The statement from commission sources, "is under provincial jurisdiction, except in halibut commission, or the Interna- now similar to that svhich prevailed the case of those on a short stretch of tional Fisheries Commission formed by on the same grounds in 1923 and 1924." the New Brunswick coast which have the Dominion and the United States Supplementing data already gathered been transferred by the province to under a treaty between the two nations, relative to the average size of fish federal control. Some investigational was then in existence, had been in entering into the catches some of work has been done with a view to existence for several years in fact, but the commission's research workers determining the suitability of this up to that time its work had been measured about 96,000 halibut during particular New Brunswick area for investigational. The commission had '37 and comparisons were made with oyster farming. proceeded on the sound theory that measurements recorded in other sea.sons. the first job was to make sure of "The reduction in the rate of capture essential facts regarding the fishery and of the fish resulting from regulations," PRIME FRESH FISH FILL the needs of the case so that it might the investigators reported, "was reflected SALMON CANS--Conc. be determined what control action in a further small increase in the size of the fish landed, which in conjunc- provement in freshness in the 1937 should be taken and how it might best pack." In hi,s report to the Dominion be made effective. tion with the general increase in abund- ance proved a further small increase Department of Fisheries the chief A yearly "closed season" of three laboratory staff in the spawning stock on the grounds." chemist who heads the months for halibut fashing on the cited several factors as contributing to Pacific was then in effect under the the improvement but to the consumer, treaty but there were no other regula- whether in Canada or abroad, the tions governing the fishery. As soon All of the Dominion's sea fisheries, important point is that Canadian canned as the commiion's research had been except those of the mainland portion sockeye salmon is now better than ever. carried sufficiently far to establish a ba.sis of Quebec, are under the administration The methods followed in canning for control of the fishery, regulatory of the federal Department of Fisheries. other varieties of Pacific salmon- action was taken under a new treaty, On the other hand, most of the fresh- springs, cohoes, pinks, and chums—are which was ratified in 1930. The result water fisheries are administered by pro- the same as those employed in packing of regulation has been a steady improve- vincial authorities. sockeye. These other salmon may not ment in the condition of the halibut have the sockeye's deep red colour but stocks in treaty waters. they have comparable food value. y These convention waters are divided There are different seasons of abund- Nothing, by the way, goes into a can is into four main areas but the major ance for the different kinds of Cana- of British Columbia salmon except the 1- fishing operations are carried on in only dian food fish but most of the fish are fresh fish, with its vitamins and mineral .d two of these divisions—Area 3 which available all the year 'round, if not content, and a small quantity of salt-- wlaY be described roughly as lying in the fresh form either frozen or canned no colouring matter, no artificial pre- ;e north and west of Cape Spencer, or smoked or pickled or dried. Some servatives, nothing but fine quality Alaska, and Area 2 which includes the of them are obtainable in all these forms salmon, speedily handled for the sake grounds off British Columbia and part at all times. of freshness, plus a little salt. 4 FISHERIES NEWS BULLETIN SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL FUR FARMS GROWING GOLD IN THE FISH AS WORK FOR FISHERMEN CUSTOMERS FOR !FISH WELL AS IN HILLS

Alberta and New Brunswick Officials Tell Under arrangements made by the Prospectors have sometimes stumbled Dominion Department of Fisheries, spe- of Increasing Demand by Fox unexpectedly on gold but perhaps none cial educational work among fishermen and Mink Ranchers of them in Canada ever received quite in some of the Atlantic coast areas where the surprise that came to some workers the fisheries are under federal adminis- in a fish plant at Prince Rupert, B.Cy tration will be continued this year by Fur farming and fishing had no rela- the other day when they found fine flakes trained workers in adult education. De- tion a few years ago, but the situation's of gold adorning the inside of a halibut. signed to assist fishermen in localities a bit different now. Fur ranchers in How gold in that particular form got where conditions of particular difficulty Alberta, for instance, are now using such inside that particular fish nobody can exist, this educational program was be- large quantities of the coarser varieties say but, as a matter of fact, there's gun in the latter half of 1936 and since of provincial fish for feeding their foxes plenty of gold in the ocean. According then more than 650 study clubs have and mink that "every pound of fish is to one North American research worker been organized in fishing settlements, easily absorbed," according to informa- of standing, it has been calculated that a number of fishermen's associations have tion received by the Dominion Depart- a single cubic mile of ocean water holds been formed, and the fishermen, follow- ment of Fisheries from the provincial a gold content running from a minimum ing their consideration of their problems authorities at Edmonton. In New of twenty-three tons upwards. However, in the study clubs, have established ten Brunswick, too, as another example, the lest somebody have dreams of sudden or a dozen credit unions. fox breeders have found fish so satisfac- great wealth from sea "mining" it may This special program is additional, of tory a food for their stock, as reported be added that there is no way of ex- course, to other educational work car- in a published interview with a provincial tracting the ocean's gold on a commer- ried on by the department and the Fish- official, that a large percentage of the cial scale. A cubic mile of water weighs eries Research Board in the interests of ranches are using it in generous quan- between four and five billion tons and the fishermen. The latter work includes tities. "Delivery at the average ranch is Man hasn't found any method or equip- courses for fishermen at Research Board made twice a ' week," the interview ment for handling material on that scale. Stations on the two coasts, instruction stated, "but some ranches are served with Nor is be likely to do so. given in fish processing by experts whom fresh fish three times a week." Among Of course, gold isn't the only mineral the department sends to different local- the different kinds of fish used on these that occurs in ocean waters. There are ities, and the instructional activities of New Brunswick fur farms are herring, others much more valuable from the fisheries inspectors who are equipped for pollock, hake and cod. These are im- standpoint of human health. Every- duties of this kind by courses of study portant species, of course, but no doubt thing in the world, including human they are required to take. some of the less important kinds of fish bodies and all other living things, are could also be used. made up of combinations of some ninety In Two Territories What particular qualities or properties chemical elements and of these elements it is in fish foods which make them thirty-nine, at least, are known to be The first steps in the special program valuable on the fur farms is for the present in sea water. One reason why were taken in Northeastern New Bruns- ranch expert to say, but they are not fish are so healthful as food is because wick. In 1937 the work was extended to difficult to conjecture. Some of the same they assimilate from the ocean sub- This year it will the Magdalen Islands. reasons which make fish so good for stances that are necessary to the human be continued in both the Magdalens and humans aFe doubtless applicable also in body such as calcium, iron, phosphorus, in New Brunswick and it may also be the case of lower animals. For example, iodine, copper. They contain some of undertaken on some other parts of the fish have relatively high content of these essential body-building or health- Of the study clubs so far organ- coast. easily digestible proteins. They contain guarding substances in much greater ized about 550 are in Northeastern New vitamins. They have in them important quantity than do other foods. Fish, for Brunswick and 115 in the Magdalen mineral nutrients such as calcium, phos- example, are the greatest known food The Magdalens are the only Islands. phorus, copper, iron and iodine. Sea fish source of iodine. To take just one ex- part of Quebec where the fisheries are are the greatest known food source of ample: "Haddock contains nearly five administered by the Dominion Depart- iodine and it is in the oils of some at times as much lime or calcium as beef ment of Fisheries. least of these fish that Vitamin D is . Lime is the bone-forming snb' Not only is work done in the field un- present- in especially large quantity. stance and its absence causes riekets der this program but a number of young .... but unless lime is in the food it fishermen from settlements in which the Fish are one of the best food sources cannot be absorbed. ... Sea foods, as educational work is done are enabled to of the calcium and phosphorus which a_class, are very rich in this element. ..• attend a short course of study given at are necessary to the sound growth and "Since these elements are necessary for the University of St. Francis Xavier, maintenance of human bones and teeth. with training in community leadership proper health, it is the part of com- mon sense to get them in natural form a main purpose of the course. Last year Fifty-seven vessels were in the Lame- twenty-nine selected young men were que fleet which fished for cod, hake, in natural foods as a preventative, rather given financial assistance so that they haddock and herring off northeastern than as medicine. And, besides, it i3 might travel to St. Francis Xavier and New Brunswick in 1937. They ranged much more satisfying to enjoy a delight' enrol for this course. Others will be in size from ten to forty tons and about ful food like fish than to dose oneself assisted this year. 230 fishermen were engaged on them. with medicine:' FISHERIES NEWS BULLETIN

Published Monthly by the Department of Fisheries, Deputy Minister finister: W. A. FOUND LS ,on. J. E. MICHAUD, M.P. Ottawa, Canada

1938 No. 104 ol. IX JUNE, RAVEL HABITS MAKE FRASER SOCKEYES FISH AND CHIPS HIGH CARE OF INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION IN BRITAIN'S FAVOUR Joint Effort by Canada and United States to Increase Canadian Materials Admirable, Too, for Runs due to Wandering Ways of Fish-Hope to Dish Easily Prepared for Restaurant Duplicate Success of International or Home Use Halibut Board

Hungry Britishers may buy fish and The percentages fluctuate, however, from Fraser River sockeye salmon believe chips on Sunday-as long as they do not year to year and in 1934, for instance, in seeing the world. Or in going buy them from the fish and chip shop. Canadian share of the production travelling, at all events. the Or so, at all events, it was recorded in Creation of the International Pacific from these Fraser sockeye runs was only a recent Canadian Press despatch from Salmon Fisheries Commission, under a about 28 per cent. London regarding some of the peculiari- treaty between Canada and the United Of course, the Fraser area is not the ties in legislation relating to Sunday States about a year ago was really due only part of British Columbia where trading in the Old Country. to the travel habits of the valuable there are important sockeye runs ; not Whether they make their purchases Fraser sockeye. Because they frequent by any means. Such other districts as on Sundays or on other days, however, some of the waters of each country the the Skeena and \'aas areas and Rivers the people of Britain are good customers fish are of importance to both and the and Smiths Inlets yield large catches of of the fish and chip shops. And well work will be carried on these and other kinds of salmon. The commission's they might be, for the twofold reason Fraser sockeye runs, however, used to with a view to effectiye protection and that fish and chips are both tasty and extension of the fishery in the joint be very much larger than they are to- nourishing-a reason which holds at day and the new commission's job is to interests of Canadian and United States least equally as good when Canadian fishermen. build them up again in order to help fish and potatoes are used as when the Perhaps several Fraser sockeye are hatched in streams, the salmon industry. raw materials come from the other side were responsible for the reduc- and in some measure in lakes, tributary factors of the water. • to the big British Columbia river. In tion in the runs but one of them, at Cooking Canadian fish for use in fish was a mishap in connection with due time they head for the sea, like least, and chips is very simple. The desired salmonkind in general. Man cannot say railway construction along the banks of quantity of fresh fish is cut into pieces the river some twenty-five years ago. At with certainty exactly where they go in of convenient size, each piece is dipped first thought it may be a bit puzzling the two vears or so that they spend in into batter, and then dropped into salt water before heading back toward how railway building on dry land could smoking hot fat and cooked until the the Fraser system to spawn but at least affect salmon runs in the water, but the batter covering takes on a light brown A great it has been established that a good explanation is really simple. colour. All that then remains to be many of them take a travel route which quantity of rock crashed down into the done is to drain the pieces, put them leads them through the Puget Sound Fraser at a narrow gorge and so blocked on the serving dish, and bring them to area of the State of Washington on their the river for salmon bound to the spawn- the table with the potato chips. way back to Canadian Waters. ing grounds upstream that before the Numbers of these fine salmon of big job of clearing away the obstruction Making the Batter Fraser River origin are captured each could be completed the run to the upper Different cooks sometimes prefer dif- year by Puget Sound fishermen and end reaches of the Fraser system was largely ferent kinds of batter for using in cook- their careers inside cans in United States destroyed by the check that was put ing fish in deep fat but one recipe sug- In 1937, for instance, canning plants. upon reproduction. gested by a cookery demonstrator on the the pack from sockeye caught by United staff of the Dominion Department of States when on their way Top Pacific Species fishermen Fisheries is as follows: Take a cup of back to their ancestral British Columbia Sockeyes are the most valuable kind flour, three-quarters of a cup of milk, home amounted in all to the equivalent Pacific salmon and the importance one eggr a teaspoonful of olive oil, and of 60,259 standard 48-pound cases. The of of the Fraser fish to both Canada and a quarter of a teaspoon of salt; beat the combined pack of Fraser sockeye in egg slightly, add the salt, oil, milk and British the United States led to the establish- Columbia and the Puget Sound flour, and mix well. district was slightly less than 133,000 ment of the international sockeye com- mission just as at an earlier date the Numbers of restaurants in Canada cases. Put in another way, the Cana- frequently have fish and chips on their dian international halibut commission was set portion of the output made up menus, and others could follow their about 55 per cent of the total and the up by the two countries in order to con- (Continued on page 3) United States portion about 45 per cent. (Continued on page 3) 2 FISHERIES NEWS BULLETIN FICKLE MONTH OF MAY SHOWED LESS CAR WASHING BANNED FAVOUR TO SEA FISHERMEN THAN IN '37 IN FISHING STREAMS Catches Generally Smaller than in May of Year ago and Landed Value Total Reduced—Drop in Lobster New Anti-Pollution Rule Added to Fill Landings and Prices Main Factor Conservation Regulations in Alberta in Value Decrease Albertans may like to have their automobiles looking spick and span but Total landed value of the catch of In Eastern IVaters if they get the cars dirty on a fishing sea fish and shellfish taken by Canadian In Quebec, as already indicated, in- trip, or any other kind of a trip for that fishermen during the month of May was creased landings of herring pulled up matter, they mustn't wash them in ace a half a million dollars, and slightly the month's aggregate catch figures but provincial stream where fish are demi. more, below the total for May, 1937, the rise in the quantity of herring taken ling. If they do, they may be unwilling and decrease in the returns from the did not bring a corresponding rise in later listeners as a magistrate says "So lobster fi.shery was mainly to blame. herring landed value. On the other many dollars and costs." for one of the hand, drop in Quebec's catch of lobsters sections recently added to the fisheries month's lobster catch, approx- The was accompanied by a substantial drop regulations effective in Alberta providea imately 122,430 hundredweights, was in landed value. The net r-ult was that "the washing of a year any motor vehicle 2,540 hundredweights less than that total landed value for the province in any stream of the province frequented ago and as lobster prices, too, had moved for the month was not much more than by- fish is prohibited." of more downward there was a drop S131.000, as against over S185,600 in the The new regulation is intended to pro- than $374,000 in the value of the preceding May. The herring and lobster supply an additional safeguard azainst points of duction to the fishermen at fisheries are the main Quebec sea fish- higher rates of fish mortality. Greece return landing. Decrease in the dollar eries in progress in May. and oil and grime washed off a car that from some other fisheries added another In Prince Edward Island, too, by far has been travelling here, there and per- reduction in landed $140,000 or so to the the greater part of the May catch was haps everywhere about the country the five sea fisheries provinces value for made up of herring and lobsters. Land- aren't good for fish. On the contram as a whole. ings of lobsters increased but the redue- they may cut fish life short. All told, sea fish and shellfish taken tien in prices brought about a drop in Other provisos against the pollution during the month had a landed value lobster landed value. Decreased quanti- of waters frequented by fish have ap- of $1,888,200, according to unrevised ties of herring were taken by- the island plied even-where in Canada for yers reports to the Dominion Department fishermen. Some cod, hake, alewives past, end are still in effect, but the new of Fisheries, as against $2,402,800 in the and clams were also taken in Prince Alberta regulation is the first one ta preceding May. Value decreased in all Edward Island waters during the month. have specific reference to pollution from five provinces but the lobster fishery is Total catch from all island fisheries for dirty automobiles. All the anti-pollution confined to the eastern coast and there- the month was 73,400 hundredweights, laws or regulations, of course, spring fore the greater part of the total de-crease which meant a drop of about 10.400 from the fact that Canada's fisheries was in the four Atlantic provinces. hundredweights; total landed value, resources are so valuable either from the Total catch of all kinds of sea fish $238,600, decreased by over S17 300. dollars-and-cents or recreational point and shellfish for the five prdvinces was Nova Scotia's catch totalled 325,700 of view that it is essential in the general about 1,079,000 hundredweights, or some hundredweights and its landed value was public interest that adequate steps be 72,100 hundredweights below the figures $1,027,600, roundly stated. Catch was taken to conserve them. for May, '37. Quebec, with landings of down about 54,500 hundredweights and If Alberta fish have reasoning pawn 309,500 hundredweights, showed an in- landed value about S254,700. There was they will be glad to know of the new crease of approximately 21,000 hundred- a S200,000 decrease in lobster landed rule. As a matter of fact, the automo- weights, thanks to a more successful value although the decrea.se in catch bile hasn't added anything to the pleas- herring fishery, but in British Columbia, was only 700 hundredweights—something ures of Canadian fish, whatever it may New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island which tells the story as regards the have done for humans. It has made and Nova Scotia there were reductions course of lobster prices in May. Cod, angling waters so much more eadS in catch. herring, mackerel catch and value also accessible to so many more people that On the Pacific Coast the salmon catch, decrea.sed, and there was the same state the trout and other game fish have been 10,120 hund'redweights, was not much of affairs in several other Nova Scotia having an increasingly perilous time. smaller than in the pre-ceding May. fisheries.- Such increases as occurred They're not as good insurance risks aî Sahnon landed value was $93,000— were not sufficient to offset the reduc- they used to be. roughly, $4,000 le ss than a year ago. tions. The fish can't do much about their -Pacific halibut landings were "down" In New Brunswick the total catch reduced life expectancy themselves b. ol about 2,400 hundredweights and their was less by about 20,000 hundredweights an.glers should keep it in mind that im- value to the fishermen, close to $133,900, than in the May before and landed proved travel facilities have had te showed a decrease of a little less than value, $219.600, decreased by nearly effect of putting an increasing strain $26,000. In general, the returns from S123.000. Of the dollar reduction about upon the sport fishing waters in all set- uld other British Columbia fisheries were $89.300 was due to les.sened returns from tled parts of Canada and they sho smaller than in the '37 month. The the lobster fishery which yielded a be all the more scrupulous, therefore, landed value total for the province de- catch of slightly less than 13,500 hund- in observing the fi.sheries regulations so creased by $35,300. (Continued on page 3) (Continued on page 3) FISHERIES NEWS BULLETIN 3

TRAVEL HABITS MAKE FRASER- CANADIAN FISH STORIES THAT ARE TRUE OR IT Concluded MAY BE SOME ARE FALSE : SORT THEM OUT serve and improve the Pacific halibut fishery. The halibut commission has W met with noteworthy success and since Prince Edward Island, This brief catechism which follows 9,149 barrel=, its program became effective the catch Columbia, 6,195, contains both truth and error as to 6,742 barrels, British of halibut per unit of gear has risen Canada's fish and fisheries. Where is and Nova Scotia 4,919. quite sharply. The sockeye commission rta,l truth, where error? Perhaps readers has not yet mapped out its plans in full, know. If not, they'll find the although a start on its work has been will "Fish foods are one of the best food catechism's answers sift false from true. made, but the treaty under which the their sources of calcium, which is necessary "Quahaugs are small sea fish which commissioners were appointed calls for n but for the development, growth and main- are present on both coasts of the Domin- them to make a thorough investigation ishing tenance of bones and teeth in the human ion."-True? False? into the natural history of the Fraser r that False? The statement is false. Quahaugs are body:'-True? sockeye and related matters, conduct a any True. Fish foods are also valuable hard-shelled clams. They are landed in such sockeye propagation work as may dRel• sources of such other important mineral Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and be required, stock convention waters illing nutrients as iodine, iron, phosphorus, New Brunswick, not on the Pacific with sockeye by the methods it may s"So and copper. )f the Coast. Most of the catch is canned. determine to be most advisable, etc. herbe Headquarters for the commission have been established at New Westminster, n•ide: "Canada's annual catch of cod has "Canada's lobster fishery is entirely an which lies near the mouth of the Fraser ehicle greater marketed value than the produc- Atlantic Coast fishery but it is more and has been an important centre in the ented tion of any other single fish taken by important than the lobster fishery of any British Columbia salmon industry since Dominion fishermen."-True? False? other country."-True? False? the start of the commercial fishery. The ,d to British Columbia's salmon True. The Dominion's lobster catch False. cost of the commission's work is to be ?aIDSt fishery leads all Canadian fisheries in is much larger than that of any other borne in equal shares by the two gov- reece point of annual marketed value. nation and in recent years it has been 7 that worth about S4,400,000 annually in ernments. i per• marketed value. untrc "Halibut contains a higher protein percentage than chicken."-True? False? trary, FISH AND CHIPS-Concluded True. The respective percentages are "Fish foods, in general, are more easily example with profit. The management about 15•3 and 13•7. digested than meats."-True? False? iutica of one successful group of restaurants in True. Fish tissues are tender because e ap makes fish, living in water and buoyed up Central Canada, for instance, yeara "Sturgeon are taken in the freshwater by the water, do not have to develop fish and chips one of its feature dishes. new fisheries only:'-True? False? the strong muscles and ligaments which In preparing, say, thirty portions at ie to False. Much the greater part of Can- one of the restaurants in the group or land animals must have. from ada's sturgeon catch is taken in the chain the following ingredients are used: ution freshwater fisheries, with Quebec and Eight pounds of Canadian fish and a pring Ontario the largest producers, but some "Canadian sardines contain no other batter matie by mixing a pound and a heries of the fish are caught in the sea fisher- than `A: "-True? False? quarter of flour, a pint and a half of r. the vitamin eries of each coast. False. Little herring are the raw milk, two eggs, and a teaspoon and, a point material of Canada's sardine canning half of baking powder. It is essential, !neral industry and sea herring contain at least the chef in charge says, that the batter ,s be "\'o canned salmon may be shipped three vitamins-A, B and D. be allowed to stand for one hour before to market from British Columbia, the it is used. oRers big producing province, until it has been new inspected by a federal canned salmon "Cod, haddock, hake and cusk, and and has been omo• inspection laboratory pollock are the fish used in Canada's CAR WASHING-Concluded alea:- found to be up to certain standards of dried fish industry, an Atlantic Coast that fish stocks may not become de- may quality:'-True? False? industry:'-True? False? Regulations are based on ex- made A laboratory staffed by quali- True. Most of the dried fish is dried pleted. True. perience and scientific study on the part e3

Anglers may not believe it but some Helping to maintain and increase British Columbia's fishing industry streams do have too many trout in them. Canada's stocks of fish, the sixteen main used a few more vessels and boats in When that happens, there isn't enough hatcheries and several subsidiary estab- catching fish and shellfish last year than food to go 'round and the fish don't lishments operated by the fish culture were at work in 193G and there was a reach the normal proportions of their workers of the Dominion Department modest increase in the number of fish- ermen working on the fleet. The capi- kind. Take them to a more suitable en- of Fisheries distributed last year nearly vironment, however, and they'll stretch 61,832,000 fish eggs, baby fish and older tal investment in vessels and boats, out their inches, put on weight and take fish in those parts of the country where S7,133,200, roundly stated, was about $254,650 greater than in the preceding on the fighting qualities of their race. the fisheries are under federal adminis- year. Or this, at all events, is the view which tration. Hatcheries were operated in Altogether, 8,402 vessels and boats is apparently confirmed by an experi- the three Maritime Provinces and in ment which the Dominion Department were fishing in '37 or nine or ten more British Columbia. At the end of the There were 11,034 fisher- of Fisheries has been making in New year, by the way, the departmental than in '36. men working from them, a total which Brunswick. concerned, with sport fish There are Speckled trout in many New hatcheries was slightly more than 100 above the propagation in British Columbia were Brunswick streams but in one of the less earlier year's figure. In each year, of transferred to the provincial authorities, important brooks examined by the de- course, the industry also employed a partment's fish culture people it was who have to do with sport fishing in number of carrying vessels and scows found that the stock showed stunted non-tidal waters. and their crews but these craft and men growth. They grew to maturity but During the early part of 1937 the were not engaged in actual fishing but under-nourishment was printed all over department also directed the operation in transport operations. them. When 900 of them were captured of hatcheries in Alberta's national parks, Gasoline boats used by the fishermen by the fish culturists for experimental but at the expense of the National increased sharply in number. All told, purposes they were found to average Parks Bureau of the Department of there were 6,858 of them, valued at only five inches in length and only about Mines and Resources. At the end of more than, 54,119,000, the number show- an ounce in weight. It's no slander to March, however, the Parks Bureau as- ing an increase of about 250 over the call a trout of that size a "poor fish." sumed the entire responsibility in con- 1936 total. This jump in the number In October, 1935, the 900 captives were nection with the operation of these of gas boats might be expected to be transferred to the department's hatchery plants. reflected in a substantial increase in the at St. John. They didn't have to hustle grand aggregate of fishing boats and propagated at departmental for their own food there. The hatchery Species vessels of all kinds but there happened staff saw to it that they were given hatcheries in '37 included, in the east, to be a similar drop in the number Of Ouananiche, Sebago all the food they would eat, most of it Atlantic salmon, sailboats and rowboats, with the net liver by the way. salmon, and Speckled, Rainbow, Kam- result, of course, that there was not By the time a year had rolled around loops and Salmon trout. In British much difference between 1937 and 1936 the fish had increased their weight to Columbia the hatcheries handled Sock- totals. However, since rowboats and an average of 3-7 ounces and their length eye, Coho and Kennerly's salmon as sailboats are less costly than gasoline A to slightly more than nine inches. well as Steelhead, Kamloops, Speckled boats the decrease in the number of the month later, in November, '36, between and Cut-throat trout. Outside of first two classes of craft meant a re- six and seven hundred of them were national parks and those areas where duction of only $25,000 or so in value marked for identification purposes by fisheries administration is a federal func- while, on the other hand•, the increase in the removal of the right pectoral fin tion, the fish culture work carried on gasboats meant a rise of nearly $154,000. and they were then set free in two St. during the year was conducted by pro- On the "gear" side of the story the John County lakes-Beaver and Ping- vincial authorities. big entries in each of the two years Last year a number of the Pong. were those covering salmon drift net, marked fish were recaptured in the salmon purse seines, hand lines, and Some of them taken in Beaver lakes. purse seines, respectively. The salmon Lake measured eleven inches, in Ping- taking on the characteristics of the fish drift nets decreased somewhat in number Pong the average was a little more than native to each lake. This experiment in 1937 and their total value, S933,700, that and the average weight was better seems to confirm the view that stunted All of the recaptures and small Speckled trout will assume showed a drop of about 593,000. ^SoTr than ten ounces. salmon purse seines were in use than showed the dash and spirit of the nor- normal size and growth when transferred They rose readily to suitable environment with plenty of in the year before and on the value side mal Speckled trout. there was a gain of something more than to surface lures and their flesh was food." In other words, perhaps fish $50,000. Other seines and hand line' firm and well-flavoured. from over-stocked streams can be used both decreased somewhat in number but "The introduced marked fish," says a to increase the trout population in waters statement by the fish culturists, "are where there aren't fish enough. value totals increased. FISHERIES NEWS BULLETIN hilnister: Published Monthly by the Department of Fisheries, Deputy Minister lion. J. E. MICHAUD. M.P. Ottawa, Canada W. A. FOUND

Vol. IX JULY, 1938 No. 105 FIFTEENFOLD INCREASE IN ACREAGE "BLUENOSE" FISHERMAN OF P.E.I. OYSTER FARMS SINCE 1932 AS WELL AS RACER Underwater "Farming" Plan Extended also to Nova Scotia under Dominion Fisheries Department Flying Schooner • Same Type as Other Program—Island Growers' Output Rising Vessels of Deep Sea Fishing Fleet Sharply—Carry on Intensive Stocking of Atlantic Coast with Eye on Future Most Canadians when they think of Oyster "farms" are growing fast in vincial and federal authorities in 1936, the schooner Bluenose may think of a Prince Edward Island. In 1932 there the oyster areas were transferred to racer but the fact is that the ship is a were only 26 of them but last year Dominion control. working fisherman—a typical Nova they had increased to 463. Scotia deep sea fishing vessel, making In the earlier year, '32, when com- Think N. S. Outlook Good her regular trips to the "Banks" or mercial oyster culture in the province offshore fishing grounds. Only a few was first getting fairly under way as Since the transfer of the Nova Scotia weeks ago the Bluenose came back to a result of steps by- the Dominion areas certain surveys and investigations her home port of Lunenburg after Department of Fisheries to develop and experiments have been carried on making a trip to the banks and in her an oyster farming industry in the under Dr. Needler's direction. Sufficient hold svere more than 2,000 quintals of island, the underwater farms had a progress was made to make it feasible fish ready to be processed for the dried this year to offer areas for lease for total area of approximately 110 acres fish trade. but by 1937 the acreage had increased "farzning" and a large number of ap- It's in between fishing trips and not to 1,690. No oysters were sold by the plications for leases have been received. very often as it happens, that the Blue- "farmers" in the earlier years; last Prospects for profitable oyster culture nose is a racer. Next October the year's sales amounted very nearly. to in Nova Scotia are believed to be best schooner will meet a Massachusetts fish- 1,950 barrels. in the Bras d'Or Lake region of Cape ing vessel, the Gertrude L. Thebaud, Breton and in the Wallace-Malagash which has challenged for the champion- Until about ten years ago the oyster area on the gulf shore of the mainland areas of Prince Edward Island were un- ship trophy that the Canadian boat has portion of the province. "Investigations held for a number of years as the fastest der the control of the provincial author- to date," Dr. Needier says, "have in- ities but they were then transferred by fishing schooner of the North Atlantic. dicated that a greatly increased produc- This will be the first race in some years. the province to federal jurisdiction. Un- tion of oysters of good shape would be der the transfer agreement the Depart- possible, with proper methods." Part Except that she has proven faster than ment of Fisheries undertook to carry on determine fully just what others, the Bluenose is typical of Nova a of his job is o Scotia bank fishing ve-els. They are all program looking to the development those "proper methods" may be for it of the oyst,er resources. A year or two sturdy sailing vessels, capable of with- were required for investigations and ex- does not necessarily follow that methods standing the stormiest kind of weather. perimentation before the details of the which have been so successful in Prince They range in size from roughly- seventy program could be definitely deter- Edward Island are suitable in every re- tons to more than 125. When they're mined but by 1931 the department was spect for application in areas elsewhere. fishing they carry crews numbering up ma position to begin the plan of leasing Turning- back to Prince Edward Island, to, say, twenty-five. For the most part suitable areas to persons wishing to take the figures as to the quantity of oysters they use the "long line" method of up the new kind of "farming". Since planted on their areas by the oyster making their catches, which means that then, as is shown by the figures which farmers are of interest as showing the they do their fishing from two-man have already been given, there has been attention the men are giving to develop- dories which are put overboard on the rapid development, especially in the ing their industry. Last year, as has bank-s and from which "long" lines, each Malpeque Bay region of the province. with five or six hundred short lines been said, they sold more than 1,900 attached, are set. The catches consist, Several years ago a federal research oysters from their farms-- station barrels of in the 'main, of cod, haddock, hake and was established at a provincial but, looking to the future, they planted Point, Ellerslie, for the special purpose pollock. At certain times of the year- a far larger quantity than that. • They the "bankers" seek fares for use in the of dealing with oyster problems and ex- a mean to have their farms well stocked. dried fish trade, at other seasons num- Perirnentation. Dr. A. W. H. Needier, the 26 farmers capable zoologist, was placed in charge. Naturally, in 1932 bers of them go "fresh fishing," which is More recently, Dr. Needler's field was then holding leases of ground from the another way of saying that their landings extended to include Nova Scotia where, department did not plant a very great are intended for use on the fresh fish bY an agreement made between the pro- (Continued on woe 4) (Continued on page 4) 2 FISHERIES NEWS BULLETIN MACKEREI. QUEBEC FISHERMEN'S BEST FRIEND IN '37 CAME IN BIG NUMBERS EARLY SOCKEYE PACK

Catch Increase over 150 Per Cent, Rise in Dollar Return TOPS RECENT AVERAGE Nearly 300 Per Cent-Drops in Other Important Total British Columbia Output of Canned Fisheries Pull Down Provincial Total for Year Salmon for First of Current Season If they wanted to make themselves a little more than $1,308,200 but that Shows Some Gain popular with Quebec fishermen last year, was about $183,000 below the 1936 other fish should have behaved like figures. In the case of the freshwater Forecasting the behaviour of fish for mackerel. fisheries,)uebec, by the way, has more to-morrow from what they did yester- The mackerel came swimming into important inland fisheries than any of day or may do to-day is an uncertain Quebec waters in much greater numbers the other coastal provinces-the mar- kind of business, but the course of the than in 1936 and the fishermen made the keted value, S583,800 in round numbers, Sockeye salmon fishery in British Colum- most of their opportunity. When the showed a decrease of some $36,000. bia in the earlier part of the current year's catches had all been weighed, the season at least encourages the expecta- Cod Returns Diminish scale beam showed 4,185,000 pounds of tion of a reasonably successful year in mackerel brought to shore. The biggest single factor in pulling canned Sockeye production. And the Sockeye, of course, is the most valuable The landings were more than two and down sea fisheries value was a drop in species of Pacific salmon. a half times as large as in 1936 and well cod catch from 41,895,000 pounds to above the average catch in other recent 23,186,400, which was accompanied by a At the end of the first week of July- years. Even at that, of course, the decrease of $250,000 in marketed return. to be exact, a couple of days after that- aggregate mackerel catch was not as Lobster and herring catches and value the pack of canned Sockeye had large as the catch of either cod or her- decreased, too, and this happened also amounted to 50,923 standard 48-pound ring-much smaller in fact-but the in the case of several other fisheries. On cases, as compared with 27,978 cases at landings of the latter kinds of fish the other hand, only in the mackerel approximately the same date in 1937. showed decreases, as compared with fishery was there a substantial rise in In nearly all the British Columbia areas totals for the year before, while the value total. frequented by Sockeye the fish were mackerel did much better for the fisher- In the inland operations the net drop more abundant than they had been last men than in the earlier period. in market value was due to compara- year. The 1938 pack, as of July 9, tively small decreases in the returns topped the average output for corre- Mackerel prices, too, were firmer than from a number of the fisheries, not to sponding periods in the five years 1933- they had been in 1936 and the combined large reductions in the case of one or 1937 by some 7,100 cases. result of increased catch and better two. Such fisheries as those for carp, prices was that the total marketed value The total British Columbia pack of all herring, perch, pickerel and pike brought of the 1937 production increased by kinds of salmon in early July was 72,324 in more dollars but these gains were not nearly 300 per cent. In 1936 the value cases, as against 48,325 cases at the sufficient to offset the drops elsewhere. figure was slightly less than $27,300 and corresponding date in 1937. The aver- last year it was close to S104,800. Of age for the like periods of the five years, the total quantity of these fish that was 1933-1937, was below the 1938 figure taken, about 2,902,000 pounds were but not very much below. pickled and close to 1,047,000 pounds FINNAN HADDIE SCALLOP Of course, the salmon canned in largest were used in making salted fillets. quantities in British Columbia are the Whatever they should have done, most Finnan haddie-haddock prepared by Pink and the Chums. A few of both of the other kinds of fish which are in smoking-is put up in prime quality by of these kinds of fish enter into the early pack, but the big runs of Pinks and the habit of visiting Quebec waters Canada's fishing industry and is avail- didn't behave like the mackerel last year. able to the consumer at all seasons of Chums do not begin until after July They didn't show up in greater numbers the year. It may be served in a num- has gone by. Ordinarily, the Pink rims are at their height in August and Sep- than usual. Or, at all events, the fisher- ber of ways, as for instance, in a scallop men did not catch as many of them as made as follows: tember and the Chums are most in 1936. Mackerel and salmon alone, Line a buttered baking dish with abundant in September and October. among the sea fish, and carp and cracker crumbs. Place in it alternate Most of the early 1938 cannery output, pickerel, of the freshwater species, were layers of finnan haddie and crumbs, apart from the Sockeye production, con- captured in increased quantities. The seasoning each layer with salt, pepper sisted of Cohoes, including Bluebacks pickerel gain, however, was small and and dots of butter. Beat two eggs, add or young Cohoes, but some 4,400 cases the increase in carp landings, although to them â. half a cup of milk, pour the of Springs were canned, as well as a relatively substantial, was not compar- mixture over the contents of the baking small quantity of Steelhead trout and, as able to the gain in mackerel catch. dish, add a layer of buttered crumbs, has been indicated, some Chums and Pinks. Under these circumtances, of course, and brown in a moderate oven. Parsley Quebec's fishing industry was not as may be used as a garnish if desired. fortunate, from the dollars and cents Total commercial catch of fish and points of view, as it had been in the shellfish by fishermen of the Maritime preceding year. Dollar return from sea Sturgeon are native to the Atlantic Provinces and the Magdalen Islands in fisheries operations, or, in other words, and Pacific coasts and some of the 1937 amounted to about 457,000,000 the marketed value of the year's pro- inland waters of the Dominion. Sturgeon pounds. The landed value of the catch duction of sea fish and shellfish, totalled roe is used for making caviare. was about $8,900,000. 01973 FISHERIES NEWS BULLETIN NINE MILLION POUND CATCH GAIN IN SEA FISHERIES PRODUCTION IN JUNE HUNDRED YEARS' SWIM ENDED FOR STURGEON Some Rise, Too, in Landed Value Return to Fisher- men-Increase in Lobster Landings Noteworthy Century of Lie for British Celunlbia Fish on Atlantic Coast-Aggregate Production Established When Ear-Rings Counted up on Both Coasts Examination of the ear-rings of a June's sea fisheries catch for the Prince Edward Island- 767-pound sturgeon captured not very Dominion exceeded the landings for c.: atch...... Lbs. 5,923,000 long ago in British Columbia's Fraser Landed value...... $ 165,140 River proclaimed the fact that the big June, 1937 by nearly 9,000,000 pounds New Brunswick- and the dollar return to the fishermen Catch...... ,.Lbs. 11,572,900 fish had seen a century come and go. in landed value increased by about Landed value...... S 263,560 A fish with car-rings? Of course. Not Nova Scotia- $47,000. exterior adornments, to be sure, but Catch...... Lbs. 44,058,900 concentric rings on the otolith or ear- In British Columbia the catch of sea Landed value...... $ 83Ei,240 bone or, as some put it, the ear-stone. fish and shellfish showed a gain of 600,- Total- 000 pounds, roundly stated, and aggre- Catch...... Lbs. 84,748,000 Counting otolith rings is the method gate point-of-landing value for the prov- Landed value...... $ 2,110,230 of determining the age of some fish. In the case of the big Fraser sturgeon the ince was $593,900, a betterment of over On the Pacific Coast more than half of rings were counted by an inspector on $66,000. On the Atlantic Coast there the total catch, or over 5,000,000 pounds, the British Columbia staff of the was a big catch increase, over 8,355,000 came from the salmon fishery and it had pounds, but on the dollar side a decrease Dominion Department of Fisheries, a value of close to S400,000 as landed. of more than $19,000, which brought among others, and he vouches for the On both sides of the salmon account the Atlantic landed value down to a little statement that there were more than more than $1,516,000. figures were higher than in the preceding a hundred of them. Age, by the way, June-S60,000 pounds higher on the catch hadn't made this fish decrepit, not by a In the Atlantic area the lobster fish- side. The halibut fishery produced more good deal; it put up a hard battle with ery provided both happy and disap- than 2,672,000 pounds, which meant a every one of its 767 pounds when it pointing features. The catch of lobsters, found itself trapped in a fisherman's net. 8,314.500 pounds, increased by approxi- gain of some 323,000 pounds. Halibut mately 1,573,000 pounds-a gratifying landed value, 5151,500, increased only a state of affairs for the continued trifle. The salmon and halibut fisheries, Taken East and West productivity of this fishery, the largest of course, are more important than any others in British Columbia. Sturgeon are taken in both sea and of its kind in the world, is of great freshwater fisheries of Canada but the importance to all four eastern coast larger catches are landed in inland provinces. The unfortunate feature was On the Eastern Coast waters of Quebec and Ontario. All of that lobster prices were weaker than a Reduction in New Brunswick's catch the catch-it totalled 656,300 pounds in Year ago and the increased catch brought 1936-is marketed fresh. the fishermen an aggregate return of was mainly due to lessened landings of only 5650,000 as against $733,400. was very much less than a year ago. Sometimes called "the royal fish," the pollock and sardines. The quality of sturgeon is perhaps best known to most A comparison of provincial totals of sea pollock taken by provincial fishermen people as the source of caviar, which is fisheries catch for June just past Sardine catch decreased by about one- prepared from the roe of the fish. Cana- and with those for the same month of last half. In eac case there was sharp de- dian production of caviar is small, how- year, shows that in Quebec and crease in the^anded Prince value of the pro- ever, simething like a couple of thou- Edward Island, as well as in duction. On the other hand, several of sand pounds a year and nearly all of it British Columbia, there were gains both New Brunswick's fisheries were more is put up by Ontario fishermen. in catch and landed value, and in Nova successful than in June, 1937-for ex- Scotia a Several different species of sturgeon catch increase but a drop, ample, the herring and gaspereau fish- though less than a thousand dollars, on occur in Canadian waters but all of them eries. Lobster catch showed some gain belong to the same family, one with the value side. In the case of New but its landed value, S60,820, decreased a long scientific name, Brunswick, as shown by unrevised re- Acipenseridae. by $10,000. They're not very important commer- ports to the Dominion Department of Quebec fishermen increased their cially, taken by a few hundred thousand Fisheries, there was a reduction in catch and value alike. catches of cod and lobsters quite sub- pounds a year as compared with catches stantially, with resultant rises in landed of many millions of pounds in the case value returns. The herring and of some other fish, but their presence Results by Provinces mackerel fisheries were also somewhat adds a bit more emphasis to the wonder- The results for June, 1938, by prov- more successful than in the June before. ful range of fish foods obtainable by inces, were as follows, odd figures being Bigger landings of gaspereau, herring Canadians from their fishing industry. omitted : and lobsters were the main factors in bringing Prince Edward Island's catch British Columbia- Catch.. ..Lb 9,2C9,200 aggregate above last year's figures. The Halibut are big fish, often measuring Landed value...... $ 593,890 catch from the lobster fishery, the @uebec.- as much as five feet from nose to tail. island's most important fishery, was Catch.. ..Lbs. 13,924,000 The male is much smaller than the Landed value...... S 249,400 (Continued on page 4) female. 4 FISHERIES NEWS BULLETIN "BLUENOSE" FISHERMAN JAMES BAY FISHING HERE AND THERE IN AS WELL AS RACER—Con. FISHERIES OF 1937 markets. When "fresh fishing" they ma Commercial fishing in the tidal waters catches ashore with a minimum of their of James Bay for experimental purposes Fewer "swords" were landed by Nova delay but when fishing for the dried continues to be licensed by the ad- Scotia fishermen in 1937 than in 1936. fish trade they remain at sea for a num- ministering authority, the Dominion De- Or, in other words, the catch of sword- ber of weeks at a time. partment of Fisheries, but the results fish, big fish which take their name from obtained by fishermen, and other data, the fact that a serrated prolongation of Important Trade do not indicate that there is likelihood the jaw somewhat resembles a sword, that a fishery of substantial importance fell off to 1,500,000 pounds, roundly The dried fish trade has long been im- could be developed. For some few years stated, as compared with 1,785,000 in the portant on the Dominion's Atlantic past the Ottawa department has issued preceding year. However, sword fish Coast, with dried cod making up the tidal water fishing licences to people prices were firmer than in '36 and the largest part of the production. Fish in wishing to try their luck commercially dollar return to the fishermen increased. the dried form can be kept, of course, in the bay. The number of licences has — for an extended length of time and the During 1937 there were 239 lobster bulk of the Canadian output goes to ex- not been large and reports made to the canneries in operation in the Maritime department by the licensees have shown port markets, as, for example, the West Provinces and the Magdalen Islands, Indies. only small catches. The licences permit the parts of the Atlantic Coast area fishing with gill-nets but the meshes where the fisheries are administered by When the Bluenose or any other may not be smaller than three inches nor the Dominion Department of Fisheries. schooner is on the banks, making catches larger than five and a quarter inches, The number was seventeen smaller than for the dried fish business, each day's extension measure. Other methods are in the preceding year. fare of fish is split, cleaned and washed, permitted, on trial, so that the fishing — then stored in the hold where each layer possibilities of the bay may be ade- Lunenburg's salt-fishing fleet had a of fish is heavily sprinkled with salt. quately tested. A condition of each more successful season in 1937 than the When the schooner goes back to port licence is that the holder make a fort- schooners had experienced for some the fish are unloaded and dried in the nightly report to the Department of time. Their landings of fish for the open air and sun or it may be that part Fisheries as to the results of his opera- dried fish trade was 104,150 quintals, or of the drying will be done in man-made tions. nearly 25,000 quintaLs more than in 1936. driers. The length of time required for Numbers of the vessels also engaged in open air drying depends, of course, upon fishing for the fresh fish trade during weather conditions at the time when the fish is being made ready for market. FIFTEENFOLD INCREASE—Con. autumn and winter months. — Canada's dried fish is Shipments of drysalted salmon from While most of quantity of oysters; their operations shipped outside the country the product British Columbia in 1937 totalled slightly good many Cana- were just nicely beginning. They did more than 22.840 boxes weighing 440 is in favour with a plant slightly more than 250 barrels—a dians. It has the dual merit of being pounds each. The Orient is the main comparatively respectable quantity but small in com- market for salmon processed by dry- both nourishing and parison with the plantings in subsequent salting,. Most of the salmon used in the cheap. years. In 1933 there was a jump to salteries belong to the Chum variety. 1,363 barrels; next year the quantity was not very far short of being twice as British Columbia Indians landed 2,671 NINE MILLION POUNEi—Con. large. In 1935 there was another in- fur seals during the calendar year crease, still another in '36, and last year 1937. Under the Pelagic Sealing Treaty 2,155,000 pounds, an increase of over the farmers planted no less than 5,175 none but Indians may capture fur seals 583,000 pounds. barrels. off British Columbia. Features of the month in Nova Scotia Oysters occur naturally on both coasts Of the 317 whales taken in British operations were increases in the landings of Canada but the production from the Columbia whaling operations last year of cod, with the catch totalling 17,564; fishery has hitherto not been equal to 265 were Sperms. There is no whaling 000 pounds as against 11,046,700 and domestic demand. Each year sees sub- on the Dominion's Atlantic Coast. mackerel and lobsters. All told, Nova stantial oyster importations. The island — Scotia's lobstermen landed 4,235,700 "farmers" are looking ahead as they add Production in 1937 from Canada's pil- pounds, a gain of close to 719,000 to the stock on their oyster areas. The chard fishery, entirely a Pacific Coast pounds. With prices lower than in the Dominion's oyster-producing provinces, fishery, included nearly 1,707,300 gallons earlier June, however, lobster landed by the way, are British Columbia and of oil, 8,483 tons of meal, and slightly value for the province was only $376,400, the three Maritimes but only in Nova less than 41,000 cases of canned pil- as compared with $429,500. Scotia and Prince Edward Island are chards. A small part of the catch was the areas under Dominion control. In also used in the fresh fish trade and part New Brunswick the areas on a short for bait. strip of the coast are under federal Lobster catch increased in Nova jurisdiction, under an agreement between All told, nearly 6,000 salmon gillnets Scotia and New Brunswick in 1937 but Ottawa and Fredericton, and some in- were licensed for use in the British decreased in Prince Edward Island and vestigations have been conducted there Columbia fishery last year. Licences Quebec. The net result was that the by Dr. Needier looking to possible for purse seines, the other major kind total catch, approximately 31,000e oyster culture developments in the of catching apparatus used by British pounds according to unrevised figures, future but New Brunswick areas gener- Columbia salmon fishermen, numbered more than 2,000,000 pound.s greater was ally are subject to provincial authority. more than 200. than it had been in 1936. FISHERIES NEWS BULLETIN

;liinlater: Published Monthly by the Department of Fisheries, Deputy Minister lion. J. E. MICHAUD, M.P. Ottawa, Canada W. A. FOUND

Vol. IX AUGUST, 1938 No. 106

"BIG TEN" IN FISHERIES CONTRIBUTE BUILD SALMON RUNS OVER $31,000,000 TO YEAR'S VALUE TOTAL BY BUILDING "I.ADDER" Salmon Well in Lead with Production Value in 1937 Fishway Overcoming Steep Falls to Open Nearly $12,400,000-Lobsters, Cod and Herring Next Salmon's Way to New Spawning -Six other Fisheries in Million Dollar Class- Grounds in B.C. Area Whitefish Top Freshwater List Because men build a ladder in 193S British Columbia fishermen are likely to Sixty different kinds of fish and shell- Much the greater part of the salmon catch increased numbers of salmon in fish, plus some whales and seals, entered catch was landed by British Columbia Ellerslie Channel in subsequent seasons. into Canada's commercial fisheries catch fishermen and nearly all of the cod by By way of explanation it should be said last year but ten of the sixty produced Atlantic coast vessels and boats. How- at once, however, that the "ladder" in about 79 per cent of the total marketed ever, neither the salmon nor cod fishery this case is not such a piece of apparatus value return. Rated according to yielded as large a total catch as in the as is used by carpenter or fireman, but marketed value for the year, the "Big preceding year. is one of those devices otherwise known Ten" were salmon, lobsters, cod, her- On the marketed value side of the as "fishtcays" which are built to enable ring, whitefish, halibut, sardines, had- books the salmon were ahead of any of fish to surmount falls or rapids which, dock, pickerel, and trout. the others in the "Big Ten" group, unaided, they cannot ascend. All told, the 1937 production from though they did not make as good a By overcoming IS-foot falls in Ingram the commercial fisheries was valued on showing as in 1936. The catch was Creek, which drains from the Ingram the market at a little more than valued at 512,370,000, in round figures, Lake system at the head of Ellerslie â38,976,000. The combined landings of or nearly 51,500,000 more than in the Channel, this particular fishway will salmon, lobsters and their eight com- earlier year. Lobsters, all of them open up some six and a half miles of rades in the year's first-rank group were caught by Atlantic fishermen, had a good spaR'ning grounds which salmon worth nearly 531,100,000. total value of a quarter of a million coming up the stream have hitherto If fish ever become puffed up with and came second in the dollar list. been unable to reach. That should pride because of their own importance Then came cod, 53,140,400, and in the mean increasing runs of fish to Ellerslie the "Big Ten" might perhaps be excused fourth place the herring, which were Channel as future seasons go by and for doing a bit of puffing. worth almost $2,556,900. successive generations of salmon come Possibly they would point out, too, Production of the other six species to maturity and ascend the creek to that to.gether they contributed catches in the group-whitefish, halibut, sar- spawn. Below the falls there are only weighing over 8,017,000 hundredweights dines, haddock, pickerel and trout- some thirty yards of spawning grounds, to the Dominion's total landings of was under the two million dcllar mark but if the grounds in the lake's system slightly more than 10,918,000 hundred- in each case.\but above the million level, above are opened up successfully by the weights. After all, 801,700,000 pounds- in most cases well above. All of the fishway the Ingram Lake spawning area the figure obtained when hundredweights whitefish and pickerel and most of the will be larger, with one exception, than are converted into the other unit-rep- trout were taken in the inland fisheries. any other in the Bella Bella district. resent a huge quantity of fish. In Other Groups The falls concerned make their abrupt Lobsters, whitefish and halibut had drop of eighteen feet in a distance of perhaps better reasons for pride than British Columbia's pilchards didn't only forty-five feet of stream a.nd any of the other species in thte group. get into the million dollar group but although all varieties of salmon come All three of them were taken in greater they came close to it. Blue pickerel, up the creek none of them, so far as quantities than in 1936 and each of the all of them caught in Ontario waters, can be ascertained by the local fisheries three brought the fishing industry in- were worth more than $812,000, an in- officer, have ever succeeded in getting creascd dollar return on the market. crease of not much less than S200,000 beyond the obstruction. Numbers of Herring Catch Biggest over the 1936 figure. Diackerel catch them try to ascend the falls, of course. So far as size of total catch goes the on the Atlantic Coast had a value of but they are thrown back by the force herring ^vere well ahead of the field. about 5635,750. of the water, badly bruised and bat- More than 3,057,000 hundredweights of In none of the remaining fi.heries did tered. Salmon are game and vigorous them were taken, some 200,000 hundred- the year's production go beyond fish, but there's mighty power in water Reights more than in 1936. Salmon S500,000. Perhaps, however, as indicat- which comes tumbling eighteen feet came next in quantity landed, approx- inz how wide a range of choice in fish down a comparatively narrow le-d,e be- tween steep rock-side bill,-. i.natel•y 1,724,200 hundredweights. and food^ is cffered consumers by the Do- tten the ecd, 1,5236:10 hundredweights. (Continued on pagc S) (Continued on page 4) 2 FISHERIES 'NEWS BULLETIN BEHAVIOUR VAGARIES OF TWO FISH CUT TAG TELLS STORY OF TOTAL SEA FISHERIES CATCH FOR JULY WANDERINGS OF COD Production in Month's Production by Dominion's Sea Fishermen Largely due to Wilful Ways of Pilchards, Scientists Study Fish Movements to Gim Pollock-Gains in Some Important Fisheries Information to Help Fishermen on Both Coasts in Making Catches

Atlantic polleck and Pacific pilchards record, as shown by unrevised statistics This is the short story of an Atlantic let Canada down in July. If pollock collected' by the Dominion Department Coast codfish and how and why it came off New Brunswick and Nova Scotia of Fisheries, are given below, but with to wear an identification tag. and pilchards in Pacific waters had been the odd figures dropped in all instances: Captured in the Sable Island Bank found in the same abundance as a year British Columbia area off Nova Scotia on May 30, 1937, ago the mbnth's aggregate production of Catch...... cwts. 297,510 the cod was tagged by a Canadian fish- all kinds of sea fish and shellfish for the Landed value...... $ 1,769,900 eries research worker and then set free, Quebec Dominion would have topped the '36 94.420 unharmed, to follow its own devices figures. But that didn't happen. Landed value...... S 152,900 again. It kept away from trouble for Total July production from the sea New Brunswick a little more than a year. Then it made fisheries, approximately 958,980 hund- Catch...... cwts. 113,S00 Landed value...... f 128,710 a mistake. On June 20, 1938, it grabbed redweights, showed a decrease of about Prince Edward Island at an enticing bit of food off Gabarouse, 98,000 hundredweights and the landed 40,130 Cape Breton. That ended its earthly, 23,130 value of the catch to the fishermen Landed value...... $ or watery, career. The bit of food con- Nova Scotia decreased by something like $78,000. 413.100 cealed a fisherman's hook. The cod Pilchards and pollock were mainly to Landed value...... S 454,830 went to market weeks ago or perhaps blame for the drops. In July of last Catch for the month decreased in it's somewhere in a shipment cF dried year British Colum•bia's pilchard fisher- three of the sea fisheries provinces, but fish on the way to market. men made a substantial catch, about increased in bot.h Quebec and Nova The fisherman returned the identifica- 140,000 hundredweights, though they Scotia. The gain in Quebec, some tion tag to the federal Fisheries Re- had to. go quite a distance from home 18,000 hundredweights, was traceable to search Board. A glance at the number to do it. In July jus't past they had the cod, herring and lobster fisheries. on the tag and another elance at tag- There are plenty of very little luck. In Nova Scotia the cod, haddock, hake, ging records told the invc^tigator con- pilchards in the sea, but they are eccen- herrinn and mackerel fisheries con- cerned when and where the fish had tric creatures and it is never certain tributed most of the net increase. first been caught and ta.gged and freed. what vagaries of movement they will So far as landed value goes, Quebec It had ended up at Gabarouse, and show. alone showed gain. Value fell off in taken a little over a year to get there. Pollock catch in the two producing Nova Scotia, nottvithstanding catch in- The movements of a single fi.b New Brunswick and Nova provinces, The dollar rise in Quebec was wouldn't tell anybody very much, of dropped in July to less than crease. Scotia, a little more th= $15,000. course, about the migratory habits of 22,000 hundredweights, as against ap- cod. The case is different, however, if proximately 72,100 hundredweights in Ups and Downs a large number of cod are tagged and the July preceding. There's this to be Pilchard drop was the chief factor, of substantial numbers of them recaptured said for the pollock, however, that in course, in pulling down British Colum- later on. In that case an analysis of July, '36, they were exceptionally abund- bia's catch total. It also cut a fairly the tagging records may reveal what ant, especial]y in New Brunswick's Bay big slice off landed value total for the travel course the fish, as a group, usu- of Fundy waters and this year they province. The biggest Pacific Coast ally follow. If that is found out it will simply turned back to more normal fishery, the salmon fishery, yielded an be possible for the fishermen to know behaviour. increase of more than 16,800 hundred- where catches are most likely to be Results by Provinces weights in catch and, 577,500 in landed made. Total July catch of sea fish and shell- value. That, in brief, is why the fisheries fish, by provinces, and the landed value (Continued on page 4) scientists in the federal service have been tagging large numbers of codfish Production of fish meal from miscel- Mackerel catch increased very sharply off Nova Scotia in the past few years. laneous kinds of fish waste jumped to ia Quebec in '37. In the year before It's a step taken with a view to obtain- 1,188 tons in Nev- Brunswick last year. the landings were less than 16,200 ing information that can be passed on In '36 it had totalled less than 100 tons. hundredweights, but last year they to the fishermen to their practical ad- jumped to 41,840. The larger part of N^antage. Collections of herring scales in New the 1937 catch was pickled. Brunswick last year amounted almost Prince Edward Island's fishing indus to 4,200 hundredweights and the scales Capital invested in All,erta.'s fishing in- try gave employment last year to 4,472 had a marketed value of a little over dustry, approximately 5295,C00, showed people, slightly more than in 1936. The S12,500. The scales are used in the an increase of about 555,000 last year. number of fishermen increused from manufacture of pearl essence which, in The increase was mainly in the invest- 3,093 to 3,310 but there was a drop in turn, is used in making artificial pearls, ment in gill nets, which were valued at the number of people at work in the knife handles, etc. 5173.4,0. fish canneries and curing plants. FISHERIES NEWS BULLETIN 3 HIGH TEMPERATURE, QUICK COOKING TAKING CENSUS OF OD IMPORTANT RULES IN FISH COOKERY PACIFIC SEA LIONS Specialists in Cooking Field Talks of 'Do-es' and 'Don'ts' Dominion Fisheries Department Making Jain in Preparing Fish Meals—Variety to Suit all Tastes in Canadian Fisheries Products Check on Size of Herds whidi Cause Fishing Loss "Secrets of frying fish or cooking it "One good thing to remember," the ntie in the oven? There really aren't a.ny Cookery Lady went on, "is that if fish Nineteen thirty-eight is census year- ante 'secrets,' for it is easy- to cook fish, but, is delivered several hours before it is but for sea lions, not humans. of course, there are one or two good to be cooked it should be kepU in a Sea lions, big and powerful marine ank rules to follow. One of them is to use cold place until preparations for the animals, do considerable harm to fish- 937, high temperature and to avoid slow meal begin. If that isn't done there is eries and damage to fishing equipment cooking." sure to be some escaping of the juices. on the Pacific coast and the Dominion So said one of the lecturer-demon- Frozen fish should be kept frozen. Department of Fisheries is setting out ices strators of the Dominion Department. "When I am ready to use pieces of to determine whether the herds are in- for of Fisheries as she answered a question fish I am going to cook I wipe them creasing in siz.e or diminishing. Prac- ade from a Mere Man, an inquiring sort of clean with a cloth, still damp, which tically every commercial fisherman of bed chap, on the department's headquarters has been dipped in salted water. That British Columbia will testify to the fact use, staff. After a series of cookery demon- is preferable to putting them in water. that there is a very sizable population of hly, strations and addresses in different If fish is placed in water for cleansing sea lions in the waters off the provincial centres she was back in Ottawa to it should not be alloweel to stand in it coast but it is desirable that some more cod share in the planning of, the autumn for more than a few seconds; otherwise, definite estimate as to the abundance taps and winter program of similar work. the juices, soluble in water, will be lost. of the lions should be obtained and this the census will give. ricd "Take a fillet or slice of fish, for Variety For All Tastes "if you put it on Under instructions from departmental instance," she said; And then, thinking perhaps to start Ica- oven when the tem- headquarters at Ottawa, the inspectors the stove or in the an argument, the Mere Man asked, Re- or only moderate some on the federal fi.sheries staff in British perature is low "What fish do you like best?" iber out, much of the Columbia are counting sea lion noses of the juices will seep "What particular kind of fish I like tag- and at the rookeries and the "hauling-out flavour and `goodness' will be lost best is neither here nor there," came the en- Put the slice places" where the animals congregate the fish will become dry. reply. "If I happen to like one fish had or 500 in numbers. On some parts of the coa.st on at high temperature. say 450 better than another that doesn't mean eed. use even hi,gher where the rookeries are not readily degrees (sometimes I that it is better. It's all a question of and temperatures) and the heat sets the accessible to the inspectors the census Se. individual taste. Where we are for- taking will be done by captains of juices at once. tunate in Canada, however, is that our fish and the the department's fisheries protection "If a low temperature is used fisheries produce something like sixty of are the steamers. The counting was begun fish cooks slowly-, not only different kinds of food fish and shellfish of the out.side portion will early- in Angus. t and all of the more juices lost, but so that there is a wide range of choice •, if the inner portion important points where the lions as- be over-cooked before for people of different ta.stes. All of the and is cooked. semble will be covered by the end of ired sixty are nutritious, and good for people September. Avoid Overcooking because of their mineral content and ; of Tteof old Loss -hat "Only a few minutes are necessary to vitamins and so on. inch rev- cook a piece of fish an inch or an "Any one of them makes an excellent As already pointed out, sea lions are will and a half in thickness, if high tempera- meal. And,\incidentally, people should big and powerful.. More than that, row ture is used,. Of course, if a whole fish vary their menus by trying the differ- they have greedy stomachs and they be is being baked its thicknew will make ent kincLs, not sticking too closely to like to fill them. Wise creatures, too, longer cooking necessary, but in that two or three varietie.s. I think that they know that fish are good food and Ties case, too, care should be taken to avoid perhaps some Canadian homes forget when runs of salmon, for instance, come ave the mistake of over-cooking. Just by that variety's the spice of life." along the lions prey eagerly upon them, fish the way," the demonstrator went on, with consequent loss to the fishermen's ",:inee I have spoken of a whole fish, catches. Nor is destruction of fish the ars. "BIG TEN" IN FISHERIES (Conc.) ain- perhaps I might also tell you that when only quarrel the fishermen have with on your wife goes to buy a fish which she minion's fishing industry it may be of the marauders. When a salmon run ad- intends to cook whole it is best for her interest to give a list of the specie.s moves nearby the lions do not bother to choose one that is short and thick, taken in some of these other fisheries: going around any nets that may be rather than one that is long and com- Hake, scallops, tullibee, perch, ling cod, between them and their next meal. paratively- thin. clams, hard shell clams, swordfish, pol- They smash their way straight for the ios- "Another buying hint. When pur- lock, pike, oysters, eels, soles, smelts, salmon, ripping through any nets that .472 chasing fish steaks don't get them too shad, black cod, tuna, carp and gaspe- chance to be in their course. Thus, The thin. An inch or a little more in thick- reau or alewives. Whether in the "Big then, they cause the fishermen twofold om ness is about right in most cases. On Ten" or not, Canadian fish and shellfish lo&s.--loss of fish to catch with their in the other hand, if you are buying fish are available all the year 'round, of gear and loss of gear with which to the for boiling you want a thick, chunl:y course, either fresh, or frozen or in pro- catch fish. Pece or pieces. cessed form. (Continued on page 4) 4 FISHERIES NEWS BULLETIN 57,000 SEE FISH FILM Easily Made, Try Creamed FISHERIES VALUE IN IN MOVING THEATRE Fish and Potato Chips PRAIRIE AREA RISES

Fisheries Department Motion Picture Tells To prepare creamed fish and potato Increase, Too, in Number of Men Finding to Big Numbers chips take a cup of medium white Employment in the Fishing Industry Story of Fish Foods sauce and mix with it two cups of Canadian canned fish, or leftover cooked Food for Thought, a sound motion fish. Then place layers of the fish and Fisheries production value increased picture illustrative of the Canadian layers of potato chips alternately in a in all three Prairie Provinces last year. fishing industry and indicative of the greased baking dish. When the dish Combined production in the three merits of Canadian fish foods, was seen has been filled put fine, buttered crumbs amounted in value to $2,756,000, roundly and heard by more than 57,000 people on the top layer and place the dish in stated, or about S412,000 more than in in a travelling theatre in Western Can- a moderate oven, leaving it to heat 1936. ada between July, '37 and July, '38. Of until the top is well browned. By provinces, the '37 totals, with odd course, it was seen, too, by a great What particular kind of fi.h to use is figures dropped, were as follows: 1lfani- many more than 57,000 people in other a matter of individual choice. Salmon, toba, S1,796,000, a gain of $128,600; parts of the Dominion during the same haddock, whitefish, halibut and trout Saskatchewan, 5527,200, a gain of over period, as it was shown in something are all excellent but others may be 5160,000; and Alberta, $433,350, or nearly like 400 motion picture houses in chosen with satisfactory results. 5123,500 more than in the preceding the various provinces. The travelling There is a wide variety in the kinds year. As the totals indicate, Manitoba theatre, however-a transformed rail- of fish foods available from Canadian is the biggest producer. way car-brought the picture and its sources, so wide, indeed, that there is In each province, too, more men story to scattered rural communities in no need for consumers in the Dominion were at work in the fisheries than in the west who otherwise could not have to buy imported fish products. There 1936. All told, there were 7,603 of them been reached effectively. The English are many different ways of cooking fish, -an increase of about 1,400 and, .rela- edition of the picture was shown to too, and that helps to make it easy to tively, that was a big jump. The 291 audiences in the car and the French avoid monotony in the diet even when landed value of the catches to the fish- edition to 54 more. .It gave them all using fish frequently. Numbers of ermen totalled close to $1,924,000. a new realization of the national im- recipes-though as it happens not the In Manitoba the pickerel is more portance of the fishing industry, and particular one given here--are to be valuable thon any other single species made the value of fish food much better found in a cookery booklet, Any Day of fish, rated according to the amount known. a Fish Day, w'hich any Canadian woman of money obtained for the catch. In The picture was prepared by a Cana- can obtain, free of charge, by writing Saskatchewan and Alberta, however, dian motion picture company for the to the Deputy Minister, Department of the whitefish is well ahead of all the Dominion Department of Fisheries, Fisheries, Ottawa. The booklet may be rest. Other species of importance in which is using it to increase popular obtained in either the English or French the prairie fisheries include trout, tulli- interest in the fisheries and thus to help printing. bee, saugers, and pike. the fishermen and fish dealers. It was shown in the theatre car under arrange- BEHAVIOUR VAGARIES (Conc.) BUILD SALMON RUNS (Conc.) made by the department with ments New Brunswick fishermen had some Construction of fishways is not al- Canadian Forestry Association, the reason to think Fortune an inconsid- ways feasible, or in some cases con- which operates the car for educational They caught more herring struction is only feasible at a. cost out Not only was the picture erate jade. purposes. than a year ago, but their landings of proportion to the benefits that could shown, but the officials in the car dis- from most of the other fisheries de- be expected to follow, but in the tributed departmental cookery booklets creased, particularly, of course, the pol- Ingram Creek case a study of the situa- to women in the audiences and pamph- lock fishery. tion by a departmental engineer led to lets relative to the Dominion's fisheries In Nova Scotia most of the principal the conclusion that a fishway of reason- resources and fishing industry were dis- fisheries yielded increased quantities. able cost would be efficient in openina tributed to school pupils and teachers. Lobster catch was down, however- up the new spawning grounds. Acc,ord- down by nearly 500 hundredweights. ingly, authority for undertaking the TAKING CENSUS OF (Conc.) Swordfish catch fell sharply and totalled work was given a few weeks aga UP to the present season the salmon fishing In order to give the fishing industry less than 1,600 hundredweights as com- Channel has not been on a some protection against the sea lions' pared. with close to 6,250 hundred- in Ellerslie very large scale, since the size of the ravages the Department of Fisheries, weights in the 1936 month. A good runs did not warrant greater fuhml for some years past, has been conduct- many of the "swords" apparently chose effort, but development of the runs as ing annual hunts at several of the larger to do their travelling well off shore a result of the fishway's construction rookeries which lie at points where im- where the fishermen couldn't reach enable the fishermen to expsnd portant salmon runs pass by and where them. will the herds have been especially destruc- their operations. tive. The hunts are carried on by men Nova Scotia's commercial fishermen from departmental steamers. Their pur- landed over 2,703,000 hundredweights Manitoba fishermen used 166 po"r pose, of course, is to exercise control of of fish and shellfish in 1937 or about boa.ts and 764 skiffs and canoes in their the size of the herds, which otherwise 52,000 hundredweights more than in 1937 operations. The craft repre:ented might work too great havoc. 1936. a total investment of about S14S.700. FISHERIES NEWS BULLETIN Minister: Published Monthly by the Department of Fisheries, Deputy Minister ;ES lion. J. E. MICHAUD, M.P. Ottawa, Canada W. A. FOUND

ding Vol. IX SEPTEMBER, 1938 No. 107 Y COD'S BITE GROWS SMALLER AS WATER a.sed CANNERIES PACK BIG -ear. TEMPERATURES DROP TO LOW LEVELS tree SLICE OF FISH OUTPUT adly Experiments by Research Worker Show Small-sized Bait a in Best for Fishermen when Water Cold on Fishing Over One-Third of Total Value of Dominion's odd Grounds—Studies of Captive Fish Show Bite Fisheries Production Represented Restricted as Temperature Falls by Canned Goods over !arly Mother Codfish doesn't have to tell leads to the conclusion, as Mr. McKen- Products of Canada's fish canneries ding the children not to take too big bites, zie puts it, "that when fishing with represented nearly 35 per cent, reckon- tobs at least not when the water is cold. baited hooks in ver-3, cold water the ing in value, of the country's total fish- Nor do the grown cod need any baits should be cut into much smaller eries output for 1937. men reminder of that kind, either. pieces than when fishing in warmer Fisheries products of all kinds had a a in It isn't that the fish know good man- water, and where large hooks are used combined value of 838,976,300, roundly hem ners by instinct. The explanation is in the warmer water it might be well, stated, and the canned fish and shell- rein- that when the temperature of the water even, to change to a smaller size of fish put up by the 382 canning plants The cools below 34° Fahrenheit, or there- hook in the very cold water." that were in operation were worth fish- abouts, "the cod do not, and seemingly nearly 813.620,000. Thirteen million cannot, open the mouth as widely as MODERATE LETELS BEST dollars would make a big pile but, as nore they do in warmer water." Neverthe- The codfish kept in the St. Andrews a matter of fact, in some years when ecies less, taking the year round, the cod on tanks were found to consume the most, world trading conditions were more ount Canadian fishing grounds open their per feeding, when the water was moder- favourable to sales the value of the In mouths wide enough to take in enough ately- warm. When the water tempera- cannery output topped the 1937 figure a bit sver, food to build bodies which are so rich ture was above 65° or as low as about with quite to spare. in the nourishment and goodness that they 32° they would not eat at all, and it However, even if world market con- e in make excellent dishes for the family was found by- observation that when ditions did leave something to be Lull- table. kept "in water of temperature near desired last year, the Dominion's fish The explanation of the change in the their lower feeding limit they did have canners added their share to the coun- cod's bite was found out by Mr. R. A. difficulty in consuming pieces of a size try's export total. Shipments of canned MacKenzie, one of the scientists on the :.) which would disappear at a gulp in fish and shellfish sent out of Canada to staff of the federal Fisheries Research warmer water. The size of the bite export markets during 1937 were valued t al- Board, through some experiments he was decidedly restricted when the fish at only sightly less than 810,609,000. Or con- has been conducting in connection with were living in the very cold water." put in another way, the cannery exports out habits his studies of the cod and their Nor was "the size of the bite" a matter represented, in value, close to 37 per ;ould and migrations. In these experiments of guess-work on the part of the in- cent of the total export business in the captive cod have been kept for several experiment sardine fisheries products. years vestigator. In the itua- in tanks supplied with running herring of one particular size were Most of Canada's fish cannery dollars KI to salt water at the board's Atlantic always used for feeding purposes and are always derived from three main won- Biological Station at St. Andrews, were kept of the number of products—canned salmon, nearly all of LB.. and records ming observation has shown that pieces or "cuts" into which each sar- it from British Columbia, canned reord- in mid-winter, when the water drawn the food in dine had to be divided before lobster from the four Atlantic provinces, the is very cold, "these captive cod the cod. In this from New Bruns- rarely, could be swallowed by and canned sardines lip if ever, take pieces of food as way, variations in the size of the bite wick. Last year's Paci fic coast pack of shing large in size as they do at other times canned salmon was valued on the of the could be checked. on a year when the water is warmer." market at almost 9.262,000 and the ' the Interesting facts, perhaps, someone WOULD EAT BUT CAN'T s,mall Atlantic output at another $6,000 shing may say, but are they of any practical "Above the temperature of best feed- or so. The production of canned lob- is as importance? Why take time to find ster, including a few thousand cases of them out? ing, these cod showed no difficulty ction as large as tomalley or lobster paste, was worth a pand The facts do have some value for swallowing pieces of feed they swallowed when in moderately little less than 82,145,000. The value fishermen. Fishing is done in different of the sardine pack was close to of catch warm water . . . . The first sign of ocean temperatures. Size 81,459.000. the measure of difficulty in feeding, and this is in swal- depends not only upon salmon, lobsters and sar- iower fish abundance the efficiency lowing, is seen when the water cools Although but upon are the "Big Three" in the fish their al fishing methods. The facts brought down to about 34° F. The food is dines •2r.ted out by the study of the captive cod (Continued on page 4) (Continued on page 4) 2 FISHERIES NEWS BULLETIN RESCUING LITTLE FISH FROM DRYING CANNED SOCKEYE PACK POOLS INEXPENSIVE CONSERVATION BIGGEST SINCE 1930 Trapped in Shallows as Water Levels Drop in Streams Great Numbers of Salmon and Other Fry in British Aggregate B.C. Output of Canned Salmon Columbia Rescued by Fisheries Officers and at Mid-September above Figure Given Chance to Grow Up for Year Ago

Life saving on a big scale was carried tendency of young fish to seek shallow British Columbia's 1938 pack of on during the past summer on Van- areas, possibly to avoid fish enemies or Sockeye salmon is going to be the big- couver Island. In one river alone, the to search for food, with the result that gest since 1930. And that is the same Cowichan, more than a million in- they are found in almost every pool thing as saying that it has only twice dividuals were rescued, and by a single along the course of a stream. Then, been exceeded in size in twenty-four life saving method. when the water drops there is often no years. The "individuals" in this case were way out of the shallows. Somehow or The importance of big fimires for little fish, or fry. other when little fish are caught in Sockeye production comes from the The "life saving" was a step in the shallow water all the predatory creatures fact that the Sockeye is the most valu- conservation of fish stocks. in the neighbourhood seem to get the able of the five species of Pacific salmon. The fry had been stranded in pools word very quickly that dinner is ready In 1914 British Columbia's canneries when the level of the river dropped and and if rescuers do not come soon there put up 536,696 cases of Sockeye and in they would all have gone to the fishes' are no fry to rescue. On some occasions 1915 slightly more than 476,000. In the Paradise-perhaps some of them had last summer "pools that were teeming 1915-1929 period the average annual been naughty little fish and mightn't with fish one day were found to be pack was only 314,552 cases. Then along have gone to Paradise-if federal fish- practically fish-less on the following came 1930 when the production rose eries guardians had not come to the day, having been visited in the mean- to 477,678 cases, but in the intervening rescue. The fish were removed from time by some hungry animal." years since then this latter figure has not been closely approached. By the dwindling pools by means of hand FRY FLEE RESCUERS seines made from curtain material and September 17 of the current year, how- carried in buckets to the running river The methods used in salvaging ever, the Sockev^ output had esceeded for release. stranded fish during the past season on 423,100 cases. The Sockeye season was Had the rescuers not come along the the Chemainus and the Cowichan were then nearing its end-indeed, the season salmon and other fry would have died of two main types-"ditching" and was already closed in most parts of the in the pools as the water dried up or, "seining." As the term implies, ditch- province-but late returns will lift the more likely perhaps, they would have ing consisted simply of di,-zing a trench pack total somewhat above the 423,000 been gobbled up by preying animals from the river to the isolated pool and mark. and birds which are alert to get free another trench from the lower end of Aggregate output of canned salmon meals of fish. the pool to the stream and thus creat- of all kinds at September 17 was As it was, the little fellows were ing a flow of water and an easy passage 1,234230 cases. That was more than given another chance for life. They will for the young migrants. Naturally, the 68,000 cases above the pack total for not all live to maturity, of course; some ditching plan was employed only when approximately the same date in 1937 of them will be destroyed by predatory the pool was not far from the river but below the 1936 figure. Production fish or other enemies, some will die. or when other means of rescue were not of canned Coho was much above the Of those of them which do grow up a practicable. The second, and most average for recent years 204,100 cases percentage will be caught by fishermen, direct, method was to use the small as against 75,000 cases at mid-Septem- but another percentage will escape fate hand seine. In some pools both methods ber, 1937, for example, 173,561 cases and come back as spawners to add to were used and in most cases it was in 1936, and 117.320 cases at the cor- the fish population in the Cowichan and necessary to repeat the salvaging effort responding date in 1935. The pack of other streams. a second time as numbers of the fry, Chums, on the other hand, was down a not understanding, sought hiding places bit, as compared with results at cor- How IT's DoNE from the good samaritans and snuggled responding dates in the three preceding Rescue work of this kind is not new away in the nooks and crannies of the seasons. The run of Pink salmon had to officers of the Dominion Department gravel bottom. been on the " light " side and cannery of Fisheries in British Columbia; they There would be a good deal of diffi- output was down quite sharply. The have done it often and in different culty in attempting to measure accur- pack of Springs was slightly larger than places as opportunity presented itself. ately any increase produced by these a year ago, but nowadays Spring sal- However, this year's work on the Cowi- rescue operations in the size of the runs mon are used more for the fresh fish chan and Chemainus rivers was an in- returning to the streams. Nevertheless, trade than in canning operations. teresting example of what can be done "the lowest estimate of the number and how it's done. of fish of all species rescued by seining In discussing this particular under- alone during the past season in the Fishermen in Ontario increased their taking G. C. Carl, of the staff of the Cowichan River is over 1,000,000 fry" blue pickerel catch by some 251000 federal fisheries research station at and it would seem reasonable to assume hundredweights in 1937, landinos 94,496 Nanaimo, and A. A. Sherman, one of that a fair percentage of them will grow hundredweights in, all. Ontario is the the departmental guardians concerned, to maturity. In any case conservation only producer of blue pickerel in point out that it seems to be the natural work of this kind is inexpensive. Canada. FISHERIES NEWS BULLETIN SMALLER CATCH BUT MORE MONEY FOR SEA FISHERMEN FROM AUGUST FISHING LOBSTER LANDINGS 30 t ABOVE LEVEL OF 193 7 Increased Returns from Pacific Salmon Fishery Main non Factor in Lifting Dominion Fisheries Value for Fishery More Productive in First Eight Month-Atlantic Landings Show Gain but Months of Year but Weakened Landed Value for Coast Slight Drop Markets Cut Value

of British Columbia's sea fisheries catch dollar total went down with the weak- Nature has been treating Canada's )ig. in August fell below last year's level ening of lobster prices. In New Bruns- lobster fishermen more generously in ime but the landed value of the fish and wick, too, the decline in lobster value 1938 than in 1937, but markets have rice shellfish entering into the catch showed figures had most to do with reducing been less kind. Lobster catch increased our an increase. provincial value total. New Brunswick's in the January-August period just past, On the Atlantic Coast the situation sardine and herring fishermen fared but the larger catch brought the fisher- for was the reverse of that in British better than a year ago, so far as dollar men less money than they had obtained the Columbia-catch increased but landed return was concerned. Nova Scotia's for smaller landings in January-August, Ilu- value declined. catch of fish and shellfish for the month 1937. ion. The net result was that combined was not quite as large as it had been in Lobsters are taken in the waters of ries landings for the two coasts, about August of last year but landed value all four of Canada's Atlantic provinces in 1,503.700 hundredweights as shown by total increased somewhat, thanks in the -the fishery is the biggest in the world, the unrevised reports made to the Dominion main to larger returns from the halibut by the way-and between January 1 iual Department• of Fisheries, decreased by fishery. Halibut landings in the prov- and August 31 of this year the fisher- ong some 30,600 hundredweights but total ince, over 5,500 hundredweights, in- men landed catches weighing in all rose landed value, 53.375,400, showed a gain creased by more than one-half and at nearly 272,000 hundredweights. In the ting of more than 5177,000. 551,660 they were worth nearly twice as corresponding period of last year the has Two or three factors explain, in the much as the catch of a year ago. catch was only 263.570 hundredweights, By main, the seeming anomalies in the Atlantic Coast catch and landed value which means that the 1938 increase was ow- statements as to catch and landed value, totals, by provinces, for the month about 8,100 hundredR-eights. (Lobster ded by coasts. For the most part, the drop were as follows, odd figures being fishing, of course, does not go on con- was in British Columbia catch total for the dropped in all instances: tinuously during January-August on all son month was due to reduction in the land- Nora Scotia- parts of the coast; legal fishing seasons the ings of pilchards but pilchards are Catch, cR•ts ...... 309,780 are different in different areas). the cheap fish and the decrease in landed Landed v a l u e ...... $420,210 In spite of the increase in landings .000 value brought about by the decrease in New I3run.+u•ick- during the past eight months, however, Catch cwts...... 197,5'.0 pilchard fares was offset-with a good the landed value of the catch to the non Landed v a l u e . . $254,250 deal to spare-when there was an in- Quebec- lobstermen was only 52,439,900, in round was crea^c in the catch of Pacific salmon, a Catch, cwts...... 89.6S0 figures, as compared with a landed han higher priced fish. In the Atlantic area Landed value...... $115,760 value total of a little less than S3,203200 for a weakening in lobster prices had most Prince Edward Island- in January-August, 1937. In other 937 Catch, cwts...... 51,720 to do with pulling down the landed Landed value...... $ 79,550 words, in the earlier period the catch lOn value aggregate for the month. had an average landed value of over the Lobster fishing was in progress dur- PACIFIC RESULTS S12 per hundredweight and in the 1938 ases ing August in certain areas in all three British Columbia landings for the period the average dropped to about em- of the Maritime Provinces, and in each month totalled 855.050 hundredweights, $9. Unsatisfactory conditions in the ases of the three the catch increased. All or about 40,400 hundredweights less than canned lobster markets were mainly cor- told, the month's landings from the the catch taken in August, 1937. Landed responsible for the price weakening of fishery were nearly 37,700 hundred- value, however, amounted to $2,474,000, which cut down landed value. na weights, or about 2,700 hundredweights roundly stated, an increase of about The Dominion's total catch of lob- cor- more than in the preceding August. S187,100. The largest catches were made sters in the full calendar year 1937 was ling The weakening in prices may be gauged, by the pilchard and salmon fishermen, 309.950 hundredweights. Landed value had however, from the fact that in New with the pilchard seiners landing more totalled S3,749,618. Even if fishing in !ery Brunswick, the biggest August producer, than 25S.200 hundredweights and the the latter part of 193S should show im- The a catch of 27,000 hundredweights had catch reaching nearly to provement similar to that which was han salmon a Point-of-landing value of only a trifle 577,000 hundredweights. In the preced- in evidence in the earlier months, total sal- more than S169,000 while a year ago a August the pilchard fishermen lobster landed value for the year will fià ing catch of 25.370 hundredweights was brought ashore almost 329,500 hundred- not come up to the 1937 level. worth S216,100. vveights of fish but the salmon land- ings amounted only to 543,000. Salmon Science did a good job for Canadian GAINS IN QUEBEC landed value for the month just past fishermen when it discovered the vita- heir min content of halibut livers. A few Quebec alone among the Atlantic was slightly less than S2,249,000, a gain .000 years ago the livers were regarded as Provinces showed increase both in pro- of 5220,000; pilchard landed value was ,496 only so much waste; last year halibut the duction and landed value. The cod S111,300, a decrease of about S32,S00. livers marketed by the Canadian fishing in and mackerel fisheries did most to bring British Columbia's halibut catch for industry were worth $117,300, roundly about the betterments. Prince Edward August, 11240 hundredweights, showed Island increased its catch aggregate but (Continued on pape 4) stated. 4 FISHERIES NEWS BULLETIN Motion Picture Tells Use Many Kinds of Fish Fisheries Board Loses Canadians of Fisheries In Courses on Cookery Useful Western Member

Shown at the Canadian National Ex- Returning to Ottawa not long ago Through the recent death of Robert hibition at Toronto a few weeks ago after giving a course of instruction on R. Payne in his home city, Vancouver, the motion picture, "Food for Thought," Canadian fish foods and their uses at the Fisheries Research Board of Can- a summer school for teachers, one of ada lost a produced for the Dominion Department keen and valued member the kcturer-demonstrators on the staff and the fishing industry of the Pacific of Fisheries, was seen, and heard, by of the Dominion Department of Fish- Coast one of its outstanding executives. audiences numbering in all 87,400 eries was asked at headquarters, "What Mr. Payne was still a comparatively people, who learned from it something kinds of fish did you use in your demon- young man at the time of his death, more of Canada's fishing industry and strations?" "Halibut," she replied, "fresh but he had established a high reputa- salmon, canned salmon and several other tion in the industry both as a man of the excellence of Canadian fish foods. kinds of canned fish, fresh cod and marked business capacity and as a man During the past year the picture was dried cod, scallops, lobs-ters, whole had- of vision, fairness and progressiveness. also presented before some 57,000 Prairie dock and fillets of haddock." At other As one of the representatives of the Province people in a "travelling theatre" courses such fish as canned pilchards British Columbia fishing industry on the operated in rural areas of Western Can- and sardines and clams were used, lake Fisheries Research Board he had taken ada and, in addition, it was on the trout, herring, whitefish, etc. It is not an alert and helpful part in making regular program in about 400 motion the purpose of the lecturer-demonstra- the board's work of increasing bene- picture theatres in various parts of the tors' work to further the interests of fit to fisheries interests throughout the Dominion. any one branch of the fishing industry, Dominion. The film shows scenes in the fishing or the interests of any one locality- industry of both coasts, as well as Atlantic Coast, Pacifie Coast, inland scenes from the freshwater fisheries, fishing areas—but to widen popular SMALLER CATCH—Conc. which are accompanied by an appro- knowledge of the value of Canadian an increase of some 1,600 hundred- priate narrative. It has been proving fish foods generally and methods of pre- weights. Ling cod catch also increased, an effective means of drawing increased paring the fish and shellfish for the though not greatly. Clam catch, 1,210 popular attention to the fisheries and table. In order that this may be done, barrels, vas more than twice as large their importance in national life. and the housewives, especially, may as a year ago. In landed value it was become informed as to the wide variety worth $4,140, as compared with S1,700. of fish foods which they may obtain COD BITE GROWS--Conc. from domestic sources, the demonstra- of fur seals by Indians on the taken into the mouth, even pieces of tors make it a point to use numerous Catch kinds of fish in their work, as is in- west coast of Vancouver Island last year moderate size, but it is not ssvallowed. as large as the . . . . 'Usually they try it again and dicated by the quoted report from one wa.s mare than twice of them as to the products used at one catch in '35 or 1,888 as against 778. again before finally giving up. It may apparent be concluded from that that the fish particular course. Some rise in sldn prices W2.9 the really want the food but cannot swallow explanation of the increased kill. it because of the size. . . . 0 More than 1,000 Cabo salmon were "As the water cools below this (34 ) taken by sport fishermen in the Camp- it is noticed that the cod do not, and CHILDREN'S DINNER bell River area of British Columbia seemingly cannot, open the mouth as last year, according [to a report made widely as they do in warmer water. . . the Dominion Department of Fish- In water colder than about 32-5° F. to Baked Fish in White Saucel eries by its inspector for that area. Ill many medium sized cod, and even some addition, a large number of Springs or large ones, have been observed time Baked Potatoes Buttered Spinach were landed by anglers. Another and again having great difficulty in tak- Tyees ing into their mouths pieces of a size Fruit Custard Milk British Columbia inspector reports that "sea. angling for Spring salmon in Como! that the small cod could easily consume Baked Fish in White Sauce (to serve fishing along the in the summer time, and in many cases harbour and Coho 6 or 8): Take two pounds of fish fillets coast line yielded good results to the they have not been able to do so." and after wiping them carefully with a cloth wrung out in cold water, sprinkle sportsman" with salt and some cooking oil and CANNERIES PACK—Conc. place on an oiled pan. Melt 4 table- More than 41,000 people find employ- ment in the fishing industry in the canning branch of the fishing industry, spoons of butter and blend in 4 table- the the canneries also put up various other spoons of flour. Scald 2 cups of milk Maritime Provinces. Over half of excellent products, as, for example, with a bit of bay leaf, parsely and number work in Nova Scotia's fisheries. — canned herring, clams, quahaugs (or a slice of onion. Strain and add to the one hard shelled clams), chicken haddie, and flour and butter mixture. Cook till Their high vitamin content is pilchards. All told, between fifteen and smooth and thick, stirring constantly. of the main reasans why Canadian twenty different kinds of canned fish Pour around the fish and bake. Allow foods are so good for people. Vitam and shellfish are packed and last year's about 10 minutes per inch thickness in D makes them especially good for output totalled 2,217,708 cases. a 400° F. oven. growing children. FISHERIES NE WS BULLETIN ber Mtinister: Published Monthly by the Department of Fisheries, Deputy Minister Bon. J. E. MICHAUD, M.P. Ottawa, Canada W. A. FOUND bert rver, 'an. Vol. IX OCTOBER, 1938 No. 108 liber tcific ives. CANADA'S SEPTEMBER SEA FISH VALUE vely INCREASED BY PACIFIC SALMON GAIN 200 SOCKEYE WOLVES' Mth, uta- KILL AT UNE SPOT n of Total Dominion Sea Fisheries Catch for Month Slightly man Larger than Year Ago, Landed Value Up over Half nes3. One Bite, Always from Salmon's Head, the Million-British Columbia, Quebec, New Standard Rule of British Columbia the Brunswick Show Dollar Increase Marauders iken king ene- Sea fisheries production in Canada in British Columbia made the big con- "Wolf, wolf," is no hymn of joy to September the was worth about S575,000 tribution to the September landed value British Columbia salmon. more in landed value to the fishermen increase, showing a gain of close to The trouble is that in those less than the catch in September, 1937, and S592,000. A jump of nearly $600,000 in travelled parts of British Columbia British Columbia, Quebec and New the value of the month's salmon catch, which wolves frequent there is no one Brunswick share the credit for bringing as landed, was the main factor in lifting to cry warning to the fish as they lie about the betterment. In the other two the dollar total for the month above the in shallow water close to the shore of red- sea fisheries provinces, Nova Scotia and figures for September of last year. The stream or lake while on their spawning tsed, Prince Edward Island, the landed value catch of salmon decreased in the aggre- migration. 1,210 Very often a salmon senses returns for the month showed decrease. gate but the catch of Cohoes was well arge danger too late-and then it dies on All told, the landed value of the above the average and with prices firm was shore a moment later and Air. Wolf catches of sea fish and shellfish taken the return to the fishermen in money moves off, licking his chops as he savoura ,700. in September by the commercial fisher- rose quite sharply. Halibut and pilchard the swift bite he took. men of the five provinces amounted to ti Zlue totals also increased but not by Only one bite from one fish, too. And the approximately S2,515,800, as compared a great deal in either case and these always from the came part of the sal- year witb $1,941,000 in the corresponding gains were more than offset by drops mon. The one bite comes from the the month of last year. in the value of the landings 3f some back of the salmon's head where the 778. The quantity of fish and shellfish other fisheries so that it was the salmob hrain and oil cavity is placed. That rent landed was 1,484,500 hundredweights, in value increase that brought about the morsel cut out with his sharp teeth, the round figures, or about 9,300 hundred- net Pacific Coast improvement. wolf drops th- rest of the fish with in- weights more than the catch of a year In Quebec there was a rise of about difference. sere ago. The increase was the result of a 536,500 in landed value and in New No accurate estimate can be made of mp- rue of more than 51,000 hundredweights Brunswick the gain was, roughly, $4,300. the toll which wolves take of spawning abia in Atlantic coast production as British The cod and smelt fisheries yielded much salmon but this is what was found not Lade Columbia, or Pacific coast, catch was the greater part of the Quebec increase. long ago by one of the inspectors on 'ish- about 42,000 hundredweights below the Cod landiVs in the province, over the staff of the Dominion Department In 1937 aggregate. 51,600 hundredweights, were some 19,700 of Fisheries when he was examining the hundredweights above the catch for Sep- spawning beds on Banks Island in the 3 or Catch and value totals for the month, tember, '37, and they were worth $69,700 Lowe Inlet area: At Gale Lake some- tlrer by provinces, were as follows, odd figures to the fishermen, or $20,000 more than thing like 200 dead sockeye and at List being dropped in all the entries: 2101 was obtained a year ago. Quebec's Bonilla Lake an even larger number, the British Columbia- catch of smelts, 3,140 hundredweights, with all of them showing the tell-tale Catch...... Cwts. 901,370 increased several fold and its landed mark of the killer-the wolf's one bite the Landed value.. . ,. = 1,766,690 Quebcc- value was $16,400, as against $5,200 in from the back of the head. At Bonilla Catch...... Cvts 72,590 '37. Lake, by the way, the inspector and a Landed value...... i , 102,250 New Brunswick- New Brunswick's sardine catch for companion actually came upon a wolf loy Catch.. .. ., „ „Cwts, 174,970 the month increased substantially and just as it was making a kill. Its salmon- the Landed value.. . , j 243,090 J'oa•a Scotia- in the case of sardine landed value, killing days ended right then and there, the Catch. . . .. G^ts. 308,650 $78,500, there was a gain of S37,500. Cod for a reason which perhaps may be ries• Landed value.. -. .. = 353,610 Prince Edward Island- and haddock figures for the province guessed. Catch.. ..Cwts. 26,970 were up, too, though New Brunswick is Conserving the sockeye runs and other one Landed value...... = 50,130 never a large producer of haddock. Pol- fi.=h salmon runs in British Columbia is one In all cases the compilations and com- lock returns dropped a good deal but miIl of the most important jobs, of course, parisons are based upon unrevised New Brunswick pollock fishing was ex- for which the Fisheries Department people monthly reports collected by the Dom- ceptionally good in the 1937 month. have to do. The Pacific salmon fishery inion Department of Fisheries. (Continued on pape 3) (Continued on page 2) 2 FISHERIES NEWS BULLETIN LADY LUCK SMILED AND TROLLER TOOK CANADIAN MINISTER U.S. COHOES WORTH $108 IN SINGLE DAY FISH CONVENTION GUEST One Swallow Doesn't Make Summer or One Day's Good Luck Make Fisherman's Season a Success but By invitation of the committee in charge, Hon. J. E. Michaud, Minister Coho Salmon Returns Generally Good in of Fisheries for the Dominion, was a British Columbia-Total Salmon Pack guest in October at the National Fish- Exceeds 1937 Figures eries Convention and Exposition held by the United States fishing industry at Boston. Mr. Michaud was one of the Fickle Lady Luck does behave hand- Springs as Cohoes, are also caught by speakers at a luncheon held on the open- somely sometimes, after all. As, for trolling but relatively few Sockeyes, ing day of the convention. when he instance, in her treatment of the British Pinks or Chums are captured on trolls. extended to the United States fisheries Columbia salmon troller who caught 180 people the greetings of the Canadian SOCIiEYE PACK RISES Cohoes in one day's fishing off the Queen industry. In his address he emphasized Charlotte Islands and obtained approxi- Early in October the total quantity the value of co-operation between the mately $108 for his catch or an average of canned salmon put up in the Pacific two countries in dealing with fisheries of 60 cents per fish. province in 1938 operations had passed problems of common interest, citing sev- That was an exceptional catch and the 1,450,000-case mark. Cannery out- eral instances in which joint action had been helpful, as, for example, the res- exceptional return, of course, but for- put in the full season of 1937 was slightly toration and conservation of the Pacific tune has been dealing well by Coho more than 1,500,000 cases. fishermen generally during the 1938 Sockeye pack for the year, 432,250 halibut fishery through the work of the International Fisheries Commission. season. That does not mean that all cases, roundly stated, was the largest in Michaud was also a guest the Coho fishermen have had so lucky several seasons. The pack of Springs, Hon. Mr. and speaker at a luncheon given by the a day at any time as the chap who at mid-October, was approximately the Chamber of Commerce in captured 180 salmon in a single day's same size as the output at the corres- Boston ponding date of last year. (Spring honour of the Lunenburg skipper, Cap- trolling; Lady Luck does not behave Walters, and Captain Ben quite as handsomely as that; but, taking salmon, by the way, are mainly used in tain Angus Pine, of Gloucester, Mass., whose re- the coast as a whole, the run of Cohoes the fresh fish trade). Pinks and Chums have not been taken spective vessels, the Bluenose and the British Columbia waters has been in Gertrude L. Thebaud, were then about unusually good and pricés for the fish by the fishermen in as large quantities this year as in some other recent sea- to begin a series of races for the cham- have been firm. sons. The pack of Pinks, in particular, pionship of the Atlantic fishing fleet. Figures showing the pack of canned will show sharp reduction from 1937 Cohoes declare the satisfactory size output when the final cannery figures One of the incidental captures made of the run. The biggest pack of this Why for the year have been made up. last year by Canadian fishermen was variety of salmon put up by British have Pinks been less abundant than a big "basking shark" which was takea Columbia canneries in any one season Who can tell they were in '37 or '36? at Queensport, Nova Scotia. The "why" with any certainty? Fish have in the past was an output of slightly creature weighed some thousands of their own vagaries and if Science has more than 216,000 cases in 1935. By pounds and its liver alone filled two made progress toward understanding early October of this year, with some puncheons. The shark was utilized by them the fish still manage to keep some canning still to come, the canneries had a fish meal plant. packed more than 252,000 cases of secrets to themselves. Cohoes-"cases" meaning cases holding British Columbia's 1937 production 48 one-pound cans each. 200 SOCKEYE WOLVES (Continued) of pilchard oil, 1,707,276 gallons, was The troller who made the big day's means so much to the coast province valued on the market at $513,906. The Coho catch was a fisherman who was directly, and so much to all Canada 1936 output, smaller by about 490,000 trolling at that time outside Skidegate indirectly, that nothing which feasibly gallons, was worth something over Inlet bar. His boat was "high" in that can be done to maintain the stocks of $290,200. area for that particular day but even fish may properly be left undone. The the "low" boat in the same area had put upon the stock by man's strain Any Women's Institute or other or- more than 100 fish on board when it fishing can be controlled but to prevent ganization of Canadian women desiring However, there was proof many young salmon from being came ashore. too to obtain for its members copies of the gobbled up by some kinds of birds and of Lady Luck's fickleness in the fact fish cook book distributed by the enemy fish and to check the depreda- that trollers fishing in other waters not Dominion Department of Fisheries tions of wolves and bears-oh, yes, the far away had to be content with smaller should send a list of the names and bears are fond of salmon-present prob- catches. addresses of the members to the Deputy lems of a different order. Cohoes, like other British Columbia Minister, Department of Fisheries, Ot- salmon, are taken by gill nets, purse tawa. When this is done, copies of seines, drag seines and traps, as well as Canadian exports of fish meal during the booklet are mailed out to the from by trolls but most of the Coho catch the January-September period of 1938 dividual members, free of charge, is landed by trolling. Large numbers exceeded 28,103,000 pounds. Fish meal Ottawa. Lists should indicate whether of Springs, though not nearly as many is largely used for stock feeding. French or English booklets are desired. FISHERIES NEWS BULLETIN 3 FISH EXPORT TRADE IN YEAR'S FIRST NINE MONTHS NOT QUITE UP TO 1937 Fisheries Inspector Dies After 20 Years' Service Total Shows $1,100,000 Drop with Decrease in Value of in Sales to U.S. Major Factor—Business with Britain Inspector William E. Joy, who joined ster Close to Level of the staff of the Dominion Department 8 January-September, '37 of Fisheries in 1919, died recently at his ish- home in New Brunswick, leaving a teld Canada's sales of fresh and frozen fish So far as export trade with the United good record as an industrious and cap- T at to the United States decreased in value States is concerned, while the business able officer. His death was unexpected. the in the first nine months of this year and showed a drop during the nine months Mr. Joy, who was 52 years of age, en- )en- that reduction was the main factor in it is also true that the republic continued tered the fisheries service as a patrol- he Pulna," total fisheries export business to be the fishing industry's best single man, serving in this capacity until the ries below the level of the trade done in export customer. Shipments sent to summer of 1931. At the latter time he han January-September, '37. Three of the that market represented nearly half, or was promoted to the position of inspec- ized 1938 months showed increases—March, $9,346,300, of total export value. tor for the Grand Maman area in the June and August—but the others de- Southwestern New Brunswick. ries creases of varying amounts. February BUSINESS WTTH BRITAIN sev- was the "bad" month, with a drop of CANADA'S SEPTEMBER (Continued) had about S700,000 to its discredit. Canned salmon and canned lobster are res- Flerring catch from New Brunswick cific Fisheries products exported during the principal products entering into Can- January-September, 1938, were valued in ada's fisheries sales to Britain but it is waters fell off but landed value total the was about the same as a year ago—a ion. all at S19,327,000, roundly stated, which an interesting fact that the business up was less, by S1,111,500, than the total for to the end of September showed another few hundred dollars higher, as a matter uest of fact. The quantity of lobsters taken, the the like period of last year. Of this increase in the sales of fresh and frozen decrease a little more than $780,000 was 14,900 hundredweights, showed some in halibut to Old Country importers. Hali- lobster prices have been weak in the business done with the United but shipments made to them in January- gain but ;ap- part of Canada's this year and September landed value Ben States, and the greater September totalled 2,159,900 pounds, fisheries trade across the border is trade in New Brunswick was only $103,400, ce- with a value S219,800, in fresh and frozen products. of over as com- as compared with $137,600 a year ago. the pared with 1,496,100 pounds and a value iout January-September export business The month's total catch in Nova of S159,500 in the first nine months of Scotia was 308,650 hundredweights, or am- with the United Kingdom was nearly, last year. On the other hand, however, but not quite, as good as it was a year about 37,200 hundredweights more than ago. Totalling S4,831,400—it is to be the shipments of fresh and frozen sal- the landings in the preceding Septem- remembered that all of the figures being mon, the other fmsh and frozen product ber. In the main the increase was due ade given here are roundly stated, not set in which the Dominion's fish people to larger fares of herring, haddock and was out to the exact dollar—was $93,300 have been developing a fairly substan- mackerel. These three fisheries, and ken under the mark for the corresponding tial business with Britain, showed a re- several others, also yielded increased The months of 1937. duction both in volume and value. In landed value returns but the gains they of Exports to countries other than the quantity the business was 4,774,300 produced were more than offset by a two pounds and in value S839,900, as com- $43,000 drop in cod value and smaller by United Kingdom and the United States value of the catch from amounted to $5,150,000, or 8238,000 less pared with 5,847,700 pounds and $882,600. decreases in the than a year the swordfish and lobster fisheries and ago. Canned salmon exports for the nine one or two others. Divided according to classification of months were not as large as they had Lion products total as been in the\ corresponding period of '37. Reduction in lobster prices tells most the 9-months' export of the drop in Prince Ed- was calculated by the Dominion Department They totalled 30,784,600, valued at of the story The of Fisheries from official trade records ward Island landed value total for $4,411,150, which meant a decrease of September. The island's catch of Lob- ,000 was made up as follows: some 8,854,000 pounds, on the one side, ver sters, slightly more than 5,600 hundred- Fresh and Frozen.. $8,744,850 and a drop of about $481,600, on the weights, was only a little smaller than Dried, Pickled and Smoked.. .. 2,442,340 other. Britain's purchases accounted for the catch in the preceding September Oils, etc.. .. .. 811,670 10,525,200 pounds of the total, as against but its value, as landed, was less than or- Other Fishery Products.. .. 584,100 purchases of some 2,280,000 pounds more $29,700 as compared with $55,300. Prince ring than that a year ago. Edward Island cod, hake and herring the The first three classifications all fishermen did rather better than last shotved decreases, which ranged frorn More canned lobsters from Canada the were taken by Britain during the nine year. ries $76,700 in the case of the Dried, Pickled and Smoked group to $636,150 in the months than were purchased a year ago A satisfactery feature of the month's and operations in the island province was a alt1 case of the Fresh and Frozen products. (2,269,100 pounds, as compared with Ut- There were increases in the two other 1,935,300) and total export trade in this gain of 100 per cent, and a bit more, of cases. An interesting incidental point is product, 3,288,300 pounds, increased by in the quantity of oysters taken. In in- that the rise in the value of "Oils, etc.," close to 165,000 pounds. On the dollar September, 1937, the oyster landings rom was traceable to increased business in side, however, there was a drop of totalled 502 barrels and this year they ther fish livers intended for use in the manu- S105,000. Prices for canned lobster have rose to 1,047. Landed value, close to red. facture of medicinal oils. shown weakness this year. $6,300, showed a corresponding increase. 4 FISHERIES NEWS BULLETIN WEATHER GOD'S WHIMS CANADIAN KELP AIDS 80-FOOTER TOPS LIST CUT SWORDFISH CATCH NEW ZEALAND HEALTH IN 1938 WHALE CATCH Unfavourable Weather Costs Nove Scotia Mineral Content Gives Medicinal Value British Columbia Whaling Vessels Land Swordfish Fleet Nearly $70,000 to Meal Made from Seaweed 310 All Told in Current Year's in Reduced Earnings of Atlantic Operations

Blame the weather gods for a de- Far-away New Zealand has come into Among the 310 whales captured by crease in this year in the earnings made the market as a buyer of Canadian kelp British Columbia whalers during the by Nova Scotia fishermen who go out meal for medicinal purposes. A recent past season the biggest was a female after swordfish. export shipment of Nova Scotia meal 80-foot Sulphur which was landed at In the four-month period, June to was destined for the Antipodes. the Naden Harbour station. Keeping September, which is the time of the It is their content of mineral salts, up the family reputation for size, a male year when swordfish are ordinarily taken notably iodine, that gives kelp and other Sulphur was the next largest capture. in Nova Scotia waters, the catch was seaweeds their medicinal value, just as He measured only 73 feet but even that 10,930 hundredweights and it was worth mineral content is one of the reasons is a good deal of whale. atrifle less than $100,000 to the fisher- why Canadian fish foods are so healthful. At the other whaling station in British men, as landed. In the like period of Kelp is abundant on different parts of Columbia, the one at Rose Harbour, 1937 the landings amounted to 15,020 the Canadian coast but not much use the two biggest whales landed were Fins hundredweights and they brought the has been made of it commercially. Lat- but here it was the male that was the fishermen $168,160. terly, however, it has been used to some larger-66 feet in length, as compared Put in another way, the dollar return extent in medicinal preparations and with a 64-foot measurement in the case to the fishermen for their catch of quite recently one of the fisheries com- of the female. swordfish decreased this season by more panies operating in Western Nova Sco- However, if Sulphurs and Fins headed than $68,000, and that is a respectable tia has taken up the manufacture of the list, so far as size of individual spe- sum of money in any man's language. kelp meal. Sale for the meal is found cimens was concerned, it was the The cause of the loss? Scarcity of in Canada and the United States and Sperms which, once more, were taken the big sword-bearing fish? No, not apparently a market is also opening up in by far the greatest numbers. Out of scarcity of fish, although in some areas abroad. the total kill of 310 whales 252 were perhaps the swordfish did stay rather The process of manufacturing the Sperms. Fifty others were Fins. In the farther off shore than they have done meal is simple enough. The pieces of remaining eight there were four Sul- in other seasons. The big trouble was raw kelp are first cut into sizes about phurs and four Humps. As compared in the occurrence of spells of unfavour- as large as the palm of a man's hand, with 1937 catch, this season's landings able weather. Fog handicapped fishing then placed on metal trays, and dried showed a small decrease-seven. in some places and so did high winds by heat from a series of steam pipes. All of British Columbia's whale catch at other times. The winds, of course, Drying requires about 24 hours and after is used in the production of meal, oil interfered especially with the operations that the kelp is ground, any foreign and fertilizer. Value figures for this of the smaller boats in the fishery. matter that may have crept in being year's output of these products are not It is only off Nova Scotia that sword- first removed. Like all marine plants, available at the moment but in 1937 the fish are taken in Canadian waters and kelp contains a good deal of water and products were worth something more most of the annual catch is exported to something like 500 pounds of the raw than $220,000 on the market. .the United States. The greater part of material is needed to produce 100 It is only off British Columbia that -the catch is taken off Cape Breton pounds of the dried weed. Canadian whaling is now carried on. Island. In some countries, as, for instance, Japan and Hawaii large quantities of During the first nine months of 1938 the freshwater fishing industry of Can- British Columbia and Nova Scotia seaweed are used for food purposes. On produce nearly all of Canada's catch this side of the world, however, Irish ada exported about 10,100,000 pounds of of halibut but the Pacific Coast land- moss is about the only one of the algaes, whitefish to the United States. The ship- ments were valued at $1,160,000. ings are much larger than those in the or seaweeds, to be used in foods. This Atlantic province. The catch by British sea moss is utilized in making blanc Canneries and curing, freezing and Columbia halibut fishermen last year mange and some jellies. It is also used reduction plants used in Canada's fish- was a little more than 117,200 hundred- in clarifying beer and in the sizing of ing industry are valued at $18,000,000 or weights and the Nova Scotia landings textiles. Irish moss occurs on some so. Reduction plants are establishments totalled 31,300 hundredweights. parts of the Dominion's Atlantic Coast but so far it has not been gathered in in which fish meal and oil are manu- large quantity. factured. - With more than 60 different kinds of food fish and shellfish produced by the In point of marketed value of fisherie9 Dominion's fishing industry there is no Every shipment of British Columbia production for the year the Dominioa's need for any Canadian consumer to pur- canned salmon is subject to examina- provinces ranked in the following order chase imported fish. A wide variety of tion by a federal inspection laboratory in 1937: British Columbia, Nova Scotia, Canadian fish foods is available for the before it may be shipped to market. New Brunswick, Ontario, Quebec, Dlan Canadian market at all seasons of the Canadian canned salmon is a quality itoba, Prince Edward Island, Saskatche- year. product. wan and Alberta.