FISHING CAPITAL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 7, 9 January 1937, Page 10

FISHING CAPITAL.

LOS ANGELES TUNA.

AN UNBOASTED INDUSTRY.

FLEET OF 1200 VESSELS. (By HARRY HALLER.) LOS ANGELES, December 10. People here are inclined to boast at length about their sunshine, orange groves, motion picture studios, aeroplanes and Boulder Dam power. They don't say so much, though, about their fishing industry, but, if they likc«l, they t might, with their usual restraint, call Lf>s Angeles one of the world's greatest sources of finned vitamins. In the comparatively short space of a generation the harbour here, where fish are both caught and packed, has become the foremost single-port fisheries centre in the United States.

The Angelenos don't care so much about this phase of their commercial life, probably because they don't eat much fish. Most of them, it is said, can't distinguish between a whale and a squid, and as the really colourful fish harbour has an unpleasant odour, and one is liable to take a tumble on the slippery floors of the packing houses, it is not often included in the itineraries of visiting firemen.

But inevitably the natives must be affected by the raucous hubbub which transpires daily in the harbour and which brings £4,400,000 into the coffers every year. Over half of the world's consumption of tuna, mackerel and sardines is caught by the 2300 fishermen plying in and out of here (their- annual payroll comes to £900,000), and packed by the 35-30 cannery workers, who relieve the payrolls of £460,000 every year. Neatly labelled cans (275,000,000 of them yearly) bear the product to the four corners of the globe. Monterey a Rival. Statistically Los Angeles, with these 5800 individuals engaged in the business of supplying the world with canned fish, alternates almost yearly with Monterey, California, in leading the nation in poundage of fish caught—each with 400,000,0001b to 500,000,0001b. This is barely exceeded by Stavanger, Norway, but is doubled by the combination of Grimsby and Hull in England, which also boasts top values of £6,480,000. In value, raw, half a dozen European ports and even Boston excel Los Angeles' £1,000,000, but much of the catch here is packed into costly products which have begun to make the fish industry one of the biggest businesses on the west coast.

A quarter of a century ago this particular area, then 20 miles removed from the city limits of Los Angeles, was contained in the very modest seaport town of San Pedro. Here an inconspicuous fishing trade was carried on, but here the visionaries, who were determined to make a metropolis out of the pueblo of Los Angeles, saw great opportunity for municipal development. Accordingly, San Pedro and Wilmington were purchased by the city in 1909, and the present flourishing harbour got under way. During the last 25 years the rapidly-growing Los Angeles has yawned out to meet its harbour.

Now one stands on the cliffs overlooking one of the greatest man-made harbours in the world and sees the large and small ships of many nations about their romantic business. Their cargoes are as varied as the flags they fly— lumber and textiles and rubber and fruit, sugar and wheat and spices. But the greatest of these is fish. Grey and brown and black, they come off the icepacked boats by the shovelful.

The bulk of them are canned, including the mackerel pack, which comprises 86 per cent of the total world mackerel pack; the tunas, in which Los Angeles leads the world; and the sardines, which exceed tuna in sheer weight, but not in value. Only a few dozen million pounds, comprising 30 varieties, such as barracuda and rock, are sold raw to the fresh fish market. Operation is Speedy. Ten nationally know packing plants have leases at the port and, in season, most of them operate day and night. They line the dock, their doors gaping wide some one hundred yards from where the boats are tied. Back doors open on freight cars ready to carry the canned product across the country. The average catch of fish can be canned, crated and on the cars within 24 hours after the schooner has dropped anchor. A look about the canneries is as interesting as one's nose will permit. A boatload of finned ladies and gentlemen are dumped incognito on the floor. There's no distinction here. The tuna king is little better than his lowliest subject. The deft hand's of the workers (mostly Filipinos and Japanese) grab them with amazing alacrity, and in a split second their heads and tails are gone, the bellies ripped from top to tail, the entrails deposited in a container, and the body placed In a shaft of wire baskets.

These baskets quickly went their way to the eternally whirring machines which wash the fish and cut it into the correct portions. Depending on the variety, it is then treated with salt or other seasoning and packed compactly into cans. The cans stay in the ovens for varying lengths of time and are then ready for labels, final inspections, crates and further transportation. It is here in Los Angeles that the greatest strides have been made in modem tuna canning methods.

All Modern Conveniences. This is the dryer side of the fishing industry. There is much more to ft than cans. But it is, of course, true that much of the romance and adventure of the trade have gone. No longer does the old concept apply—of flimsy windblown tubs with decks awash and at the mercy of every breeze, with the radius of action limited by sight of land and navigation dependent on ba/king dogs ashore. The cannery ( giant, Xith its. ten big plants and mass-production methods, has a modern tuna fishing' fleet, locally dubbed "clippers," tin a vague reaching for the of the American clipper of early'" trading days. They are sturdy vessels of 135 ft, < powered with Diesel engines which carry them over the annually lengtheningquest as far as Panama and Ecuador. „ And in their holds thousands of tons of potential salads and delicacies for the, tables and manse and tenement alike. Equipped to brave >' the heaviest -of > seas, with radio, electric gear, the most modern of navigating instruments, depth finders, auxiliary engines, refrigeration, 1 these sturdy ships have made fishing a| lusirtess for business men. They cost I 20,000 to £30,000 each, and the tuna I fleet numbers ninety.—N.A.NA. I