The Punta Gorda herald. [volume] (Punta Gorda, Fla.) 1893-1958, 1918-01-17
FLORIDA'S FISHERMEN
To be Instructed by Government
Experts in Methods of Fish
Preservation and the Convert
ing of Waste Into Oil, Fertilizer
and Meal.

South Atlantic and Gulf States for
work by efficiency experts in the
fishery interests is noted in the an
nual report of Commissioner of
Fisheries H. NJ. Smith, filed this
week with the secretary of COM
merce.
Shortage of fertilizer supplies is
one of the principal reasons cited
in the report for educational work
in the Florida and other south
coast fisheries. 1t is considered
one of the most important services
that the federal bureau can render
is to send trained experts to the
fishing centers to carry out this
program of work.
To instruct those desirous of
preserving fish by methods new to
them.
To ascertain by experiment the
adaptability of various fishery
products to untried methods of
preservation of these products.
To increase the utilization of
waste fish and fish waste.
To encourage methods which
improve the character of the pack
and discourage methods which
produce an unsatisfactory pack.
To study and attempt to solve
obstructive difficulties with which
the fishermen are cOntending.
To furnish advice relative to e.
quipment needed and information
as to where it may be obtained.
Considering work along this
line is already being carried on at
the fishing centers in Florida and
much more is in contemplation by
the bureau of fisheries and by "a
gents of the bureau of chemistry,
as has been previously told exclu-
sively in The Tampa Times.
Example of what is proposed
for the Florida fishery interests
has been demonstrated by the fed
eral bureau. Although handicap
ped by lack of adequate provision
for work of this character and in
ability to employ men with the de-
sired basic training because of
lack of funds, the bureau has rem
dered important service to can
merry men and others connected
with the fisheries in the Middle
Atlantic and New England states.
An outline of the reasons why
the bureau believes educational
work should be done in Florida
and other southern fishery fields,
and of what it is hoped to accom-
plish is told by Commissioners
Smith, as follows:
"The diversion of some of the
menhaden vessels to government
use, thereby diminishing the size
of the fleet engaged in catching
menhaden for fertilizer; the diver
sion of large amounts of tankage
from the packing houses for hog
feed, thereby reducing the sources
of supply of ammoniates; the gen.
eral scarcity of fertilizing mate
rials; and the costliness of feed
for poultry and. stock, afford a
very unusual opportunity for in
creasing the utilization of fish of
fal into oil, fertilizer and fish meal.
The amount of utilized offal is
very great. The bureau has
urged the fishermen to install con-
version machinery and use this
waste, in order to alleviate the
shortages of oil, scrap, and meal,
and has furnished information
relative to machinery needed, etc.
Experiments have been made
in the preservation of drum, sea
robin, sharks, whiting, menhaden,
river herring, bowfn, the milt roe
of fishes, and various other neg
lected or little utilized products
by untried methods of preserva-
tion, to ascertain the methods best
adapted to the preservation of
those products for market.
"The methods of smoking and