Wartime Spikes in Seafood Consumption

Commercial filleting also helped move through market the great number of fish caught by steam-powered otter trawl, a new fishing technology introduced in the United States around 1900. This technology caught many more fish than consumers wanted. Fishery producers, noting how much more fish per capita was eaten in Europe than in the United States, often complained that the problem was not overproduction but rather under-consumption. They also noted that a greater variety of species was more readily accepted fare abroad than in America.