ket Centers in April 1958. During the first four months of 1958 the total purchases of canned fish were up 24.2 percent from the same period of 1957. NOTE: SOME LOCAL PURCHASES ARE NOT INCLUDED. ACTUAL PURCHASES ARE HIGHER THAN INDICATED BECAUSE IT IS NOT POSSIBLE TO OBTAIN LOCAL PURCHASES. Fisheries Loan Fund LOANS THROUGH MAY 14, 1958: As of May 14, 1958, a total of 436 applications for fisheries loans totaling $15,905,558 had been received. Of these 220 ($5,701,592) have been approved, and 124 ($3,485,246) have been declined. As several applications have been deferred indefinitely at the request of the applicants, sufficient funds have been available to process all applications received to date. Unless the amount of funds applied for increases unexpectedly, funds will be available to process applications received during the next two months without delay. The following loans have been approved between July 1, 1957, and May 14, 1958: New England Area: Kenneth L. Lovett, Rye, N. H., $4,500; Franklin L. Libby, Beals, Me., $3,000; Charles A. Bennett, Provincetown, Mass., $6,000; Samuel Cottle, Jr., Wakefield, R. I., $27,825; Bluewaters, Inc., Gloucester, Mass., $53,000; Pasquale Maniscalco, Somerville, Mass., $43,195; Harmon Tibbetts, Jr., Boothbay Harbor, Me., $2,000; Silver Sea Inc., Portland, Me., $42,282; O'Hara Bros. Co., Inc., Boston, Mass., $102,800; Vandal, Inc., Portland, Me., $25,000; Gerald L. Small, Owls Head, Me., $1,000; Cumberland Fisheries, Portland Me., $46,000; Salvatore Passanisi, Somerville, Mass., $53,300; Lorenzo Sossanno, Gloucester, Mass., $40,000; Muskegon, Inc., Portland, Me., $32,000; Boat M. C. Ballard, Inc., Boston, Mass., $39,910; Trawler Bonnie Billow, Inc., Boston, Mass., $35,062; Warren S. Martin, Portland, Me., $6,000; Cleary Corp., New Bedford, Mass., $51,500; Lubenray Inc., Fairhaven, Mass., $39,500; Boat Camden Inc., New Bedford, Mass, $34,600; Robert McLellan, Boothbay Harbor, Me., $23,500; John Bruno & Son Co., Inc,, Boston, Mass., $27,121; Boat Mary Anne, Inc., New Bedford, Mass., $40,000; Charles C. Miller, Point Pleasant N. J., $20,469; James Maniscalco, Somerville, Mass., $36,000; Albert M. Bridges, Brooklin, Me., $4,000; John Field, Monhegan Island, Me., $3,000; Attilio Marchetti, Newport, R. I., $8,500; Henry S. Powell, Waldoboro, Me., $7,000; Segura & Segura, Provincetown, Mass., $7,684; John Wright Morton II, Scarborough, Me., $12,000; Marco A. Giacalone, Boston, Mass., $36,000; and Cosimo Parco, Gloucester, Mass., $35,000; total, $948,748. Middle Atlantic Area: Charles H. Smyth, Jr., Absecon, N. J., $4,000. South Atlantic and Gulf Area: E. H. Holton T/A, Vandemere, N. C., $125,000; Valcour Vizier, Cut Off, La., $19,306; W. C. Mobley, Aransas, Tex., $24,000; Fred F. Sanders Seafood, Inc., Savannah, Ga., $49,324; J. H. Morgan, McIntosh, Ga., $20,000; Louie Rash-Cecil Drake, Pascagoula, Miss., $32,000; Wm. Milton Anders, Kemah, Tex., $15,500; Paul V. Pitre & Louis J. Pitre, Cut Off, La., $28,000; Billy Jay Brown, New Orleans, La., $10,991; Monroe & Guy Taylor, Sea Level, N. C., $18,569; Richard H. Jones, Fernandina Beach, Fla., $16,000; Hilton Toomer, Key West, Fla., $14,000; Richard W. Marshall, Gulfport, Miss., $5,800, and Robert D. Smallwood, Jr., Everglades, Fla., $24,500; total, $402,990. California: Darrell D. Foreman, Costa Mesa, $10,000; Charles E. Graham, San Diego, $5,000; Malcolm S. Rice, San Diego, $87,780; R. Carpenter & Sons, Bodega Bay, $10,000; Anthony F. Bozanich, San Pedro, $30,000; Grover V. Nell, San Diego, $8,900; Nick Trutanich, San Pedro, $68,000; Josie Scuito, San Diego, $75,000; N. F. Trutanic, San Pedro, $130,000; Charles L. & Catherine N. White, San Diego, $1,383; Floyd A. Hill, San Diego, $4,975; and Michael F. Schroeder, ntos, $4,363; total, $435,401. Hawaii: John A. Hodges, Lanikai, Oahu, $9,000; Harold Fujiwara, Waialua, Oahu, $7,290; and Mitsuo Higashi, Waimea, Kauai, $3,250; total, 19,450. Pacific Northwest Area: Grant U. Baldwin, Westport, Wash., $2,500; K. R. Thomas, Chehalis, Wash., $7,000; A. T. Davies Tuna Vessel Commander Inc., Tacoma, Wash., $47,187; A. T. Davies, Seafarer, Inc., Tacoma, Wash., $66,872; Kaare Angell, Snohomish, Wash., $10,000; Richard Branshaw, Tokeland, Wash., $5,000; Martin L. Smith, Rockaway, Ore., $6,000; Clarence R. Bushnell, Tokeland, Wash., $9,634; John W. Nevill, Seattle, Wash., $3,200; Albert A. Anderson, Seattle, Wash., $2,500; Robert Egelkrout, Burlington, Wash., $15,000; John W. Nevill, Seattle, Wash., $1,575; Frank E. Deiner, Edwards, Wash., $2,500; Lawrence T. Fleming, Chehalis, Wash., $3,500; Cal Scott Cutler, Westport, Wash., $1,650; Boat Daily, Seattle, Wash., $10,000; James H. Cope, Seattle, Wash., $15,000; Erling Jacobsen, Seattle, Wash., $22,000; Joseph & Peter Evich, Bellingham, Wash., $25,000; and Samuel E. Hendricksen, Seattle, Wash., $10,000; total, $266,118. Alaska: Gerald G. Bennett, Ketchikan, $1,200; Charles E. Swan, Douglas, $750; Allen Sandstrom, Cordova, $2,500; and Orville F. Wagner, Idaho Inlet, $8,000; total, $12,450. Great Lakes Area: William Brown, Croswell, Mich., $8,000. NOTE: ALSO SEE COMMERCIAL FISHERIES REVIEW, AUGUST 1957, P. 18. Fishery Marketing Specialist GS-5 Examination The U. S. Civil Service Commission announced on February 18, 1958, Announcement No. 156 (B), an assembled examination for positions of Fishery Marketing Specialists, GS-5 ($3670 a year). A list of places where examination will be held accompanies this announcement. The examination remains open until further notice. The positions to be filled from this examination are located in the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service of the Department of the Interior, and other Federal agencies in Washington, D. C. and throughout the United States, its Territories and possessions. Fishery Marketing Specialists' work relates to fishery production and marketing. The duties involve investigation and market research concerning commercial fisheries or fishery commodities; also perform work relating to Fishery Market News reporting services--collection, analysis, and dissemination of information relating to production, supply, demand, movement, distribution, prices, and other phases of marketing. In some of these positions a small amount of typing is expected. Except for the substitution of education for experience, applicants must have had 3 years of responsible experience in any position involving (a) the collection and compilation of market information and statistics on fishery products and the preparation from such data of analytical articles or bulletins for publication; or (b) marketing research requiring knowledge of commercial methods and practices in producing, processing, Announcement No. 156 (B) THE FEDERAL CIVI The United States Civil Service Announces an Examination for Fishery Specialist $3,670 a Year (Grade GS-5) APPLY TO Executive Secretary Board of U. S. Civil Service Examiners mately 80 percent of the catch. The grouper catch of 1,892 pounds contained 9 species. For the most part, minimum sizes of snapper caught with the 5" stretched mesh cod end were to 1 pound. SURVEY OF MIDWATER SCHOOLING FISH CONTINUED IN GULF OF MEXICO (M/V Oregon Cruise 50): From May 12-23, 1958, the southern Gulf, from the northern shelves off the north coast of Yucatan to Arcas Reef on the Campeche Bank, was extensively investigated by the U. S. Bureau of Commercial Fisheries exploratory fishing vessel Oregon, but only light signs of midwater schools were observed. Best indications were found about 40 miles NE. of Alacran Reef in 25-30 fathoms where wide 920 900 880 YUCATAN PENINSULA LEGEND 860 Yucatan Strait M/V OREGON CRUISE 50 (MAY 10-27,1958). spread, but loosely aggregated of a drag, but sounded and apparently scattered when the vessel resumed towing op erations. Relatively heavy bottom schools were noted on the recorder over most of the area indicated, but could not be sampled with the trawl. Attempts to attract schools to night lights were uniformly unsuccessful. The period of May 24-27 was spent in surveying the area of the north Gulf between South Pass, Mississippi River Delta, and the north end of Chandeleur Island. Again, only occasional schools were recorded, although fairly heavy concentrations of razorbellies were observed one night in 8-10 fathoms of water. One drag, in 10 fathoms southeast of Chandeleur Island, caught 150 pounds of mixed chub mackerel, cigarfish, and small butterfish, but a large part of the catch was lost through tears in the trawl. In both areas schools were seen on the recorders primarily at night. Maryland CONTRIBUTION OF SHELL PLANTINGS TO OYSTER PRODUCTION: Shells planted by State and private agencies in Maryland waters provide suitable "cultch" (oyster shell thus far has proven to be the most practical cultch under Maryland conditions). Cultch is a biological necessity for the survival of baby oysters. Fertile oyster eggs de velop into tiny free-swimming larvae that travel with the tides for about two weeks. At the end of this period they must cement themselves ("set") on a firm object, usually an old shell or a living oyster, that will support them above the bottom. They are unable at this stage to survive in or upon the layer of silt that exists even in firm bottom. Upon cementing themselves they make certain body changes (metamorphoses) through which they become the oyster with which we all are familiar. Without suitable cultch no young oysters can be produced.' Bare shells obviously cannot receive a set of young oysters or "spat" unless oyster larvae occur in the water where they are planted. This means that there must be brood oysters to produce enough larvae for satisfactory setting. In some areas brood oysters have become extremely scarce. In other areas there are abundant brood oysters but the larvae become so scattered through strong tidal mixing that few are left over the bar where cultch is available. At times quantities of barnacles, Bryozoa, and many other forms of attached marine growth, as well as silt, may cover the shell surfaces before the oyster larvae are ready to attach. These and other factors greatly influence the quantity of oyster set upon the shells and at times may prevent any set at all. OYSTER SPAT (MAGNIFIED MANY TIMES) ON SMALL PEBBLE. Before man began to harvest them, all oysters completed their lives and died upon the bottom where they had set. Their shells thus continuously added to the cultch upon the oyster bed. Continued and intensive harvesting has interrupted this natural accumulation and, as older shells broke down or were silted over, many former oyster beds now have very little suitable cultch upon them. Where it is known that larvae will set in sufficient quantity, and it is decided to utilize the local set for a crop of adult oysters, then shells can be planted directly upon the beds and left there for maturity of the set that they receive. Where it is known that oyster setting is sparse, or almost absent, shells can first be planted elsewhere where the rate of setting is known to be unusually high. Areas of this nature are called "seed areas." After the spat have attached, the shells are taken up and planted as "seed" on beds where they are to grow to maturity. Production based upon seed oysters has the advantage of even-aged crops in the right concentration but involves more expense because of the transplanting from seed areas to growing areas. Yields from private shell plantings can easily be measured by the books of the planters, but yields from plantings on public bars are difficult to measure since the crops produced are usually combined with those from natural or unplanted areas. It is possible, however, to judge the expected yields by applying a knowledge of the normal natural setting rate where the shells are planted, the rate of growth, and the average normal mortality. We know that it takes 350 oysters of 3-inch length to fill a bushel. In most places a 32-inch size is reached at a little over three years of age or during the third autumn season. The normal death rate among young oysters seldom exceeds 10 percent per year after the first autumn (when the set is counted) under most Maryland conditions. Also clean shells planted at the beginning of the summer will usually catch about four times as many spat as will old cultch. Oyster research studies have produced a reasonably good picture of the average rate of setting on old or natural cultch in most Maryland waters during the past 15 years. By applying the above knowledge we can calculate how long it will take to produce a bushel of marketable oysters from a bushel of planted shell under various rates of setting on natural cultch. Thus it will require an average setting rate on old cultch of about 125 spat per bushel (equivalent to 500 spat per bushel on clean shells) to produce a bushel of 3-inch oysters on planted shells by the third season, or about 45 per bushel to produce the same amount within 10 years, and at a natural setting rate of only 20 spat per bushel it would take about 24 years for a bushel of 3-inch oysters to have been produced for one bushel of shell. The above figures apply only to early summer planted shells on hard bottom. Shells that settle in the bottom or become badly fouled before any oysters set will produce much less. Since the average amount of oyster set varies greatly throughout the State, and from year to year, the relative success of shell plantings can be expected to show great differences. Large areas along the western side of the Chesapeake Bay and in the upper portion of certain major rivers have been found to average less than 20 spat per bushel and shell plantings can seldom pay in such locations. Other large areas with slightly higher sets require fairly long periods for the shells to pay for themselves, while in a few areas, mostly certain tributary waters, sets of 125 or more are normal and here shell plantings sometimes produce excellent yields. There have been numerous instances of individual failures and marked successes. Where to locate specific shell plantings, and whether or not to use shells for seed production or direct yields, are decisions that involve many practical and political considerations. For over a century the original oyster beds of Maryland were stripped of oysters and shell before any attempts at rehabilitation were made and the decline in production was rapid. The combined efforts of State and private planting at present cover only a small percentage of the acreage of charted and potential oyster bottom. Without the shell plantings of the past quarter century, however, Maryland oyster production would have fallen much below its present level. Continued efforts in the increased and most effective use of oyster shell and of substitute cultch, both by the State and private planters, constitutes an essential step in the building up of Maryland oyster production. (March-April 1958 Maryland Tidewater News of the Maryland Department of Research and Education.) MARKETING CHANGES AFFECT FISHERIES CATCH IN 1957: Two changes in marketing have affected Maryland's ocean fisheries, according to Maryland's Chesapeake Biological Laboratory. This observation was made after analyses of the records returned by licensed commercial fishermen and cooperating dealers and a field survey of the Ocean City fisheries. One change involved industrial fish production. Traditionally, the ocean fishermen return "trash" or industrial fish to the water, as they have been considered worthless. During 1957, however, a processor at Bishopville, Md., started utilizing for byproducts industrial fish and scrap from fishery plants. Several fish trawlers from Ocean City supplied industrial fish to this processor. The 1957 catch of industrial fish from these trawlers amounted to over 5 times that of 1956, while the 1957 value was over 12 times that of 1956. The second change, that of a lower demand, caused declines in surf clam fishing, due to internal changes of the industry, rather than to any depletion of surf clam beds. The records indicate that the surf clam beds can support the same amount of fishing as practiced since 1953, because catches were maintained at high levels by the active dredgers. The 1957 total catch and wholesale value, nevertheless, amounted to approximately three-fourths of the 1956 totals. Records also indicate a decrease of 7 percent in total fisheries production during 1957 and 9 percent in value as compared with 1956. These fluctuations appear to be normal for the ocean fisheries and the totals approximate the average of the last 13 years (base years 1944-1956). The species catch in pounds and value of croaker, gray sea trout, and surf clams reflected this apparent general decline, while 1957 totals for bluefish, fluke, spot, sea bass, industrial fish, and conch showed apparent rises. Officials of the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory feel that the market for industrial fish can probably be expanded greatly at Ocean City, Md. A plant near Ocean City should result in higher prices to the fisherman since transportation costs of raw fish would be effectively reduced. North Atlantic Fisheries Exploration and Gear Research HARD-SHELL AND SURF CLAM EXPLORATION STARTED BY M/V "SUNAPEE": The vessel Sunapee has been chartered by the U. S. Bureau of Commercial Fisheries to conduct a survey of hard-shell and surf clam resources in Nantucket Sound and adjacent areas. Operations were scheduled to begin on June 2, 1958, and continue through the months of July and August, using a conventional commercialtype jet dredge. The purpose of the survey during the three-month period will be to undertake the location of new grounds and to determine the commercial potentiality and abundance of hard-shell and surf clams that may be available in those areas. This exploratory survey program was recommended by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. The majority of exploration time will be spent in Nantucket Sound, and the surfclam phase of the survey will be conducted in the offshore area surrounding the Sound, using the same jet-dredging methods. Oceanographic and biological information, as it pertains to the survey, will be collected. Progress cruise reports, reviewing general exploratory findings, will be issued monthly. * |