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Latin America perspectives a series of information and comment about Latin America with Dr. C. Harvey Gardner research professor of history at Southern Illinois University. These programs are recorded by station w s r u FM. Here now is Dr. Gardner. As a fisherman you wouldn't like them. I mean to say if you are one to journey to remote Canadian lakes in search of bass and Muskies or if you are one to fly to glamorous for a whirl at landing a marlin these other fish just wouldn't interest you. However in Latin America far to the south of those giant Mexican Marlins that attract individuals one comes to the fishing that has attracted a nation today in Peru fishing has come to mean regular employment for thousands. The rapid growth of the industry has constituted such a magnet of job opportunity. That mountaineers have become fisherman fishing has
meant millions in foreign exchange for the Peruvian government and the taxes collected from the fishing industry have enabled that government to indulge in much needed social programs. Yet oddity attends significance when it is pointed out that the basis of all this activity is the tiny and Chhobi too small to be photographed as a prize catch too small to pump into the fish fry. And yet big enough in the aggregate to brag about. Peru has long looked to the sea to the Pacific Coast to the west. This means among other things that Peru has been conscious of the famed Humboldt Current this current of unusually cold water flowing north from Antarctica. It has served to spawn a very very heavy quantities of
fish life because of the profusion of marine life in the Humboldt Current which usually is not far off that west coast of South America. That area in turn attracts great numbers of marine birds those birds in turn are nesting on the small arid island off the Peruvian coast have been renowned far the sizable cakes of bird manure are guano that they have deposited on those rocky crags indeed on some of the islands as the changes there have been caps of guano that have been 10 15 20 feet thick. This exploited in the world fertilizer industry has meant that Peru for a long time. Indeed the Indians were aware of it before the Spaniards first came has associated some of its economic well-being with the sea. But to date it has thought
that the small fish should serve as the food supply for the birds. Manure from which in turn should serve as the fertilizer for the farmers. This puts the birds in the role of the middle man as it were the new fish industry that relates to some of that same marine life pivoting on the end Jovi has now taken the bird out of the picture to a very considerable degree. The end shall be let me say is seldom more than seven inches long. It may well require four of them to weigh a pound and yet in recent years Peru has on occasion harvested as it were in a season as many as eight and three quarter million tons of anchovies. This becomes a mathematical calculation I won't bother to complete.
But if it's four to the pound and 8000 to the ton and eight thousand times eight and three quarter million tons you have a number of fish that rather dwarfs the kind of figures we speak about in terms of budgets far distant wars. All of this the harvesting of the end Shelvey crop from the Pacific Coast waters off Peru relates to the fish meal industry because the resultant basic products are meal and oil from this fishing venture. Fish meal is a feeding stuff of high protein content which is exported to the United States and Europe and is an important ingredient in the feeding compounds for chickens and pigs. Fish oil on the other hand is purified and hardened for use in the manufacture of margarine and cooking fats.
This the end of the fishing industry of Peru is a post-World War to development. Indeed as recently as one thousand fifty six there were only 27 relatively small operations working a total volume of about 31000 tons of fish meal annually. But by the early 1980s the 27 fishing companies had become 110 and the fishmeal production was up to a million and a quarter tons of meal from five six or seven times as many tons of life fish. This in turn means that the fishing industry has taken gigantic strides in terms of the labor force in terms of the number of ships in terms of the processing plants in terms of the marketing that has been a continuing problem for this expanding production. And needless to say
that we started off with the boom that makes it reminiscent of a Gold Rush has come upon some more sobering times as it has shaken down to certain realities in more recent years. In the 1960s it has been somewhat harder to catch the fish because the available supply of the Virgin stock was fished out in some areas. Also there are many more boats now operating in the same fishing areas. And so the catches are smaller and harsh to take. In time to the size of the boat has been affected and then surely a boat of 100 tons was considered a large operation. But then there were boats of 200 tons of 300 tons and larger. And it's not simply that the boat does a more efficient job of bringing more fish in in one
hole. But they have more specialized gear aboard them sonar for finding the schools of fish. They have special equipment for lifting the purse Sainz with which they garner the fish from the sea. A brief word about these scenes. The purse sane of course is dropped vertically worked in circular fashion that closed around the school of fish. And then there is a dipping process which finds you taking maybe as many as 150 tons of fish at a single catch. Transferring them from the sane to the boat with 150 tonnes rapidly causing the boat to run for the shore into the fish meal processing plant and so renewing this activity over and over again with size and efficiency. Many smaller boats and weaker companies have been forced out of the operation. Also with the passage of time
the number involved in the industry have made such demands upon fishing crews that good crews are increasingly hard to get and good crews must be better than ever because of the sophistication of the gear aboard the ship that they are now serving on. And so you have a technological revolution attending something which was once almost a personalized matter of man versus nature and going forth in small boat to bring back still smaller fish as the smaller fish are now being caught. Some problems are posed to in the processing of the fish into the meal in the fish meal plants. Oftentimes the old machinery cheap as well as old will no longer suffice for the processing of this. Call it the marginal catch. This is somewhat akin to the problem
that can occur in mining when a lower grade ore must be processed than the higher grade ore that you have usually been getting. Let us say your iron from. We have then the problem of the financial reserves of the companies some operated on a shoestring. Have been squeezed out. It's a matter of Giants taking over from the small fry. As far as fish meal operators are concerned. And then too with more highly specialized equipment aboard the boat and in the fish meal plans. You have the technological demands of your labor force that in turn enable them to require better wages and so you have a number of spiraling forces interrelated factors that are causing the Peruvian fishing industry to pause catch its breath look from markets change methods and otherwise adjust to the modern moment. That fish meal has meant a great deal to the proven
economy is perfectly obvious because it now earns more. Fine exchange for Peru then does copper its greatest mineral commodity or cotton. Its greatest agricultural product. This may be a temporary thing but it has given rise to some collateral industries which suggests that Peru has no one advance on more than one front not simply fishing because big boat building is now more and more a Peruvian activity and there are many types of equipment used in the processing plants that are being produced in Peru. Recently the producers in Peru of fishmeal have come together in what is to be called a consortium in their search for profits for prices for world market. They have decided there should be a concerted effort and this in turn has caused them through advertising through scientific exploration and all else to pool
their resources. It has redounded to their advantage. Peru now controlling more than 40 percent of the total world production of fish meal. Needless to say these fish meal factory send up fumes. Post some air pollution problems for numerous communities along the coast of Peru. There is still a bit of a battle in governmental circles between those who would protect the fish for the birds that will produce the guano and those who want the fish directly for the fish meal. As one author an Englishman related to the operation in Peru today Gerald Wright has said a bird is much less efficient processor of raw fish than a fish meal plant. And the employment provided by guano is in comparison to fish meal unpleasant and poorly paid. And so a battle of sorts will continue. But those who are important in this industry will continue to blaze horizons of their own hoping
for example that they can establish methods and grades of fishmeal that will so upgrade the product as to make possible human consumption. This which has been a gold rush industry in the life of Peru promises to be a permanent thing. And for Peru it has been an economic blessing. This was another program in the series. Latin America perspectives with Dr. C. Harvey Gardner research professor of history at Southern Illinois University joined us for our next program when Dr. Gardner will comment on another interesting aspect of Latin American affairs. These programs are recorded by station WFIU FM and are made available to this station by the national educational radio network.
Series
Latin American perspectives II
Episode Number
Episode 16 of 38
Producing Organization
WSIU 8 (Television station : Carbondale, Ill.)
Southern Illinois University at Carbondale
Contributing Organization
University of Maryland (College Park, Maryland)
AAPB ID
cpb-aacip/500-dj58hz6z
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Description
Series Description
For series info, see Item 3544. This prog.: The Peruvian Fish Industry
Date
1968-12-23
Topics
Global Affairs
Media type
Sound
Duration
00:13:37
Embed Code
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Credits
Producing Organization: WSIU 8 (Television station : Carbondale, Ill.)
Producing Organization: Southern Illinois University at Carbondale
AAPB Contributor Holdings
University of Maryland
Identifier: 68-31-16 (National Association of Educational Broadcasters)
Format: 1/4 inch audio tape
Duration: 00:13:30
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Citations
Chicago: “Latin American perspectives II; Episode 16 of 38,” 1968-12-23, University of Maryland, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed March 29, 2024, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-500-dj58hz6z.
MLA: “Latin American perspectives II; Episode 16 of 38.” 1968-12-23. University of Maryland, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. March 29, 2024. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-500-dj58hz6z>.
APA: Latin American perspectives II; Episode 16 of 38. Boston, MA: University of Maryland, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-500-dj58hz6z