The Bureau's new Fisheries Loan Program begins operation late in the year, initially with assistance from the Small Business Administration. BCF exploratory longline fishing in the North Atlantic reveals several species of tunas in an area north of their previously known winter ranges and within 15 hours sailing time of Massachusetts Nantucket Lightship. Bureau exploratory fishing operations off Alaska locate new Pacific ocean perch and shrimp resources. For the first time, shrimp discovered off Washington in earlier BCF research cruises by the John N. Cobb are fished commercially and landed. BCF assumes the administration of the Columbia River Fishery Development Program which had begun in 1948.
Construction begins on three new salmonid hatcheries and two major fishways.
Program hatcheries release 65 million salmon and steelhead trout. Exploratory research in the central, eastern, and northern Pacific reveals that Japanese and American fishermen are exploiting the same stocks of albacore. Successful redfish tagging at Eastport, Maine, provides the first direct evidence that the growth rate of this species is extremely slow, less than one-sixth inch in 9 months. Scallop Dredge BCF research shows that the yield of sea scallops in the North Atlantic can be materially increased by regulating the sizes of the rings used in the scallop dredges. Bureau research conclusively shows that improved processing and packaging techniques can extend the storage life of frozen fishery products by many months.