FISHERIES NEWS BULLETIN Minister: Published Monthly by the Department of Fisheries; Deputy Minister: Hon. H. FRANCIS G. BRIDGES, M.P. Ottawa, Canada D. B. FINN Vol. XVII JANUARY, 1946 No. 195 OVER $16,300,000 GAIN IN '45 FISHERIES MAY SHOW HUNDRED MILLION FISH EXPORTS DOLLAR PRODUCTION RECORD FOR LAST YEAR Canada's export trade in fisheries products topped all previous value Record Marketed Value of $89,400,000 in 1944 Substan- totals by a wide margin in 1945 and totalled more than SS0.225,000. As tially Exceeded in '45 though Totals Not Yet cordpared with the 1944 export business there was an increase of Certain—Big Gains in Sea. Fisheries- 25 per cent., and a little more, or Year Went Out with Flourish nearly S16,400,000. The increase over '43 was well above 823,000,000. The figures given are from records When fisheries production figures for compiled by the External Trade the year's production from the fresh- Branch of the Dominion Bureau of 1945 have been made up they will show water fisheries show any large off-sets Statistics. Roughly, three-quarters that the year was another record- to the sea fisheries gains, and, for that of the year's increase over 1944 breaker as regards mark-eted value matter, they may easily add to those trade was in the business in fresh return from commercial fishing oper- increases. and frozen fish, which amounted in ations in the Dominion. Freshwater production, though impor- all to slightly more than 844,230,000. Marketed value retuna may hit the tant, is very much smaller, of course, The bulk of this fresh-and-frozen hundred million dollar mark and it will, than saltwater production. What it business was with the United States at least, be well beyond ninety million, amounted to last year will not be known though more than 20,000,000 pounds as compared with 1914's total of slightly until reports have been issued by pro- of frozen fish went to Great Britain more than SS9,400,000, which had been vincial authorities, who administer the under supply between agreements • much the highest figure reached in the fi.sheries Ottawa and London. Exports of in nearly all the freshsvater canned fish, mainly salmon and fishing industry% history. producing areas of the country. herring, increased by about 82,630,000 How great the • gain was in 1945 Preliminary sea fisheries figures show and were valued, all told, at cannot be accurately estimated until catch gain in British Columbia, Quebec, 823,865,000. There was an increase the work of collecting, checking, and Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia of more than S1,330,000 in the value compiling the year's final statistical but some decrease in New Brunswick, of exports of cured fish (dried, schedules is completed, and that is a the latter state of affairs being chiefly pickled, salted, smoked) and this job which will take some time yet. It due to smaller landings of sardines and branch of the business done abroad involves dealing with literally Inkndreds herring. Des:pite its drap in aggregate amounted to. close to $11,800,000. of schedules from federal fisheries offi- catch, however, New Brunswick was in cers stationed in the field, from fish line with the other four provinces in companies and associations, and from having landed value increase to its FISHERIES SETS UP provincial fisheries services. credit though the gain was modest. ECONOMICS DIVISION Preliminary and unrevised reports Nova Scotia and British Columbia, the show that in the se•a fisheries—leaving biggest producers, were the biggest con- production frein the commercial fresh- tributors to landed value gain, with an Ian S. McArthur Named Chief of New water fisheries out of account for the increase of over $3,500,000 to the credit Fisheries Department Service for time being—the 1915 catch was about of the former and the British Columbia 1,200,000,000 pounds and its value to the gain running around $3,000,000. Economic Research fisherman, as landed and before prepar- ation for market, was over $49,000.000. Year Closed Well Created a short time ago, the post Compared with 1914 results, there was December sea fisheries closed out the of chief economist in the headquarters thus a gain of more than 95 million year with a flourish. Gains were general, set-up of the Dominion Department of pounds in catch and a gain of about both on the catch side and in landed Fisheries has recently been filled by the 86,900,000 in landed value. value. Total landings, unrevised figures, appointment of Ian S. McArthur, for- Final, revised reports will change the exceeded 72.500.000 pounds, an increase merly chief of the Agriculture Statistics figures somewhat, of course, possibly of some 21,000,000 over the catch for Branch of the Dominion Bureau of cut the increases but, at the worst, will December, '44. Their total landed value Statistics at Ottawa. Mr. McArthur, not reduce the gains sufficiently- to was something under $2,500,000, a gain who was with the Department of Agri- endanger the present statement that not very far short of $700,000. culture for several years before joining '45 fisheries operations set a new record British Columbia gets the credit for the bureau's staff, was selected by the both as to landed and marketed value. much the bigger part, roughly 16,500,000 (Continued on page 4) Nor is it likely that returns covering (Continued on page 3) 2 FISHERIES NEWS BULLETIN LOBSTER CANNING CANADIAN FISHES UNDER STRICT CONTROL Twenty-Eighth in a Series of Non-Technical Articles Maritime Province Cannery Pack for '45 with Reference to Various Canadian Fish and Lifted Above '44 Total by P.E.I. Gain Shellfish and Their Place in the Nation's Fisheries Canadian lobster canners, all of them on the Atlantic coast, have to watch their THE CUSK (Brosme brosme) fish have different preferences as regards sea bot.tom-the cusk liking bard, rocky p's and q's. Not so well known to most people, the cusk belongs to the same fish family as spots, the hake the softer muddy or Most of them, at least, would do 'that sandy sea floors. Incidentally, cusk when anyway, of course, for they take pride in the cod, the haddock, the hake, and the pollock-the family the scientists speak hooked on rocky ground will often curl doing a good job, but any canner who their bodies in asnong the rocks and in took a different attitude would find that of as Gadidae. But there's not very much resemblance between the cusk and this way resist more strongly the pull `there's a law'-and it's enforced. Its of the fishermen's gear. main purpose is to make sure that con- these other species. The latter are not sumers who buy Canadian canned lob- bad looking but the cusk's best friend Market Forms and Markets: ster get a good product. would scarcely call it handsome. Some- Most of Canada's cusk landings go what eel-like in looks, it has fins running Lobster canners can't operate their into the fresh-and-frozen trade, much almost around the whole length of its the greater part of the Dominion's busi- plants without having government per- body and its brownish or greenish skin mits. They can't get permits unless ness in fish in these market forms being if often rather unattractively mottled. done within Canada and in the United their canneries have passed a prescribed However, handsome is as handsome does and detailed grading test made by a States. Some cusk are used in preparing and one thing the cusk does is to prove dried salt fish and dried salt boneless trained fisheries officer under federal reg- itself a first rate food fish when put on ulations relating to the canning of fish fish. (Canadian products of the `dried' the human's -table. and shellfish. class, with cod the raw material for most of the output, are normally exported in And a lobster cannery doesn't pass Where taken: large volume to the United States and the test unless it is found to merit at The cusk occurs on both sides of the to the West Indies and other southern least 75 marks out of a possible 100 on north Atlantic, its American range from areas. In some prewar days there was the score of construction and equip- Greenland, on past Labrador, Newfound- also substantial exportation of dried fish rnent and at least 85 out of 100 for land, and the Maritime Provinces, and to European areas). Small quantities of operating methods and plant sanitation. southward to the Massachusetts coast. cusk are marketed as smoked fillets. Fifty per cent may be the pass mark in On the European side the fish are found some schools but lobster canneries have off the Scandinavian peninsula, around to do a good deal better than that. the Faroe and Orkney islands, off Iceland Nor is it enough to pass the test at and Spitzbergen, and in some other Cod Liver Oil Like This the beginning of the lobster season. localities. So far as Canadian cusk Tastes Nice Say Children Canneries must measure up to standard catches are concerned, nearly all of them throughout the season's operations, and are made off western Nova Scotia, examinations by fisheries inspectors see though there are also small landings in \early everybody knows that cod to it that they do. southwestern New Brunswick.