VII. Conceptual Program of Action

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=110 BGCOLOR="#999933" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="04a006e0ddwnfv.png"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Arial" ><B>Gloucester Community Development Corporation                                            </B></FONT><B>     |     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Gloucester Community Development Corpora"><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> back to<B>  </B><A HREF="id31.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Pelagics Study"><U><B>Pelagics Study</B></U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=160 BGCOLOR="#CCCC99" TEXT="#080000" background="052a0c00esnpes.png"> <div> <A HREF="id59.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Pelagics Study"><U>Pelagics Study</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id61.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Table of Contents"><U>Table of Contents</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id46.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Acknowledgments"><U>Acknowledgments</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id64.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="I. Executive Summary"><U>I. Executive Summary</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id68.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="II. Mission and Goals of GCDC"><U>II. Mission and Goals of GCDC</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id60.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="III. Mission and Goals of Study"><U>III. Mission and Goals of Study</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id67.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="IV. Administrative Report"><U>IV. Administrative Report</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id69.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="V. Gloucester Fisheries"><U>V. Gloucester Fisheries</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id70.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="VI. A View from Many Angles"><U>VI.  A View from Many Angles</U></A></div> <div> <B>VII. Conceptual Program of Action</B></div> <div> <A HREF="id72.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="VIII. Fisheries Management"><U>VIII. Fisheries Management</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id73.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="IX. Gloucester Fish Inc. as the Seed of "><U>IX. Gloucester Fish Inc. as the Seed of a New Model of Coastal Fisheries  Management</U></A></div> <div> <B><IMG SRC="0d27b330.png" border=0 width="123" height="51" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=370 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> VII. Conceptual Program of Action</div> <bR> <div> <B> Toward the Use of Two New Methodologies</B></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>This section is divided into three parts. It outlines the set of strategic decisions that were taken before suggesting the creation of a surimi plant. The second part offers a brief outline of the proposed processing technology; and the third part offers a brief analysis of a new management model: functional integration of management tasks.</B></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>a.  A Review of Strategies </B></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>The selection of the proposed technology will appear more self-evident if we analyze alternative forms of utilization of pelagic species of fish. As it can be seen from the attached graphs, the stocks of pelagics at this stage seem to be very large-while the stocks of traditional groundfish, although recovering, seem to be still in precarious condition. </B></div> <div> <B>     The alternatives we have considered are as follows. Apart from their use as bait and as staple in a variety of small niche markets, such as smoked and pickled herring, there is no ready market for fresh pelagics. These species are rather small, by America standards, and their flesh is oily and dark. These characteristics militate against their use in the fresh mass consumption market that is accustomed to thinking of fish in large portions that are white and lean. There is no ready-made market for their utilization.</B></div> <div> <B>     There is a market for canned mackerel. The market is rather small. And it requires the development of canneries, a type of production technology that leaves behind many unpleasant externalities and make them more adaptable to a rural than an urban environment such as the mixed one that exists in Gloucester. Due to these peculiar characteristics of this type of industrial utilization, there has never been any in-depth analysis of the possibility of using this type of technology in Gloucester. The socio-political resistance to the creation of canneries in this city seems to be so self-evident that the possibility never enters the realm of public discussion.</B></div> <div> <B>     The next large size market is that for frozen pelagics. The market is large and worldwide. But there is no such market in the United States. Therefore the utilization of pelagics for the frozen market was soon discarded. In addition, such a market would not help create either jobs or value added product here in Gloucester.</B></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B> </B></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B> </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     b.   Outline of Processing Methodology</B></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>For the processing and full utilization of pelagic species, most intense scrutiny has been given to a set of methods and processes patented by the University of Massachusetts Marine Station at Hodgkins Cove. These processes stipulate that fish will be kept in refrigerated seawater (RSW) containers, landed through fish pumps, and speedily processed at constantly low temperature. The process, that we like to call the Hultin-Kelleher (H-K) model, is streamlined in the attached diagram and outlined in the next paragraphs.</B></div> <div> <B>     The fish landed is passed through a grinder and homogenized by adding nine parts of water to each part of fish. Adding citric acid and placing it in a centrifuge at very high speed, the product separates into three elements: fat and oil at the top; fish protein in the middle; and membranes and bones at the bottom.</B></div> <div> <B>     Fats and oils present possibilities of transformations to pharmaceuticals; and bones to fertilizers. The most important element, for our purposes is the middle nearly pure protein product.</B></div> <div> <B>     Adding acid to raise its pH value, this component is placed into a centrifuge again, at lower speeds than before, in order to separate the water from the protein. The water is so pure that it can be used two more times for the same purposes.</B></div> <div> <B>     The result is a sediment to which sugar can be added in order to reconstitute into larger molecules. This sediment is surimi. This sediment can be further dehydrated and transformed into powder that, being colorless and tasteless, can be added to any food product-and can be transported very long distances and has a long shelf life of approximately three years.</B></div> <div> <B>     The process is chemical but totally natural" chemical-and is run at ambient temperatures.</B></div> <div> <B>     All commodities thus obtained will be offered to the local market for the creation of value-added products: oils can be transformed into pharmaceuticals; bones into fertilizers; surimi into fish and meat analogs of such quality as that exhibited at the last International Seafood Expo in Boston in the year 2000. The secondary level of manufacturing could double or triple the gross value of the product, do the same for employment, and create a high tech seafood manufacturing sector for the city.    </B></div> <div> <B>     Water as supply and discharge poses a unique set of problems for plants in fish processing. The plant will be held to rigorous standards in regards to water and effluent management as set by the City of Gloucester, working with the Commonwealth Office of Technological Innovation as well as the plant engineers. The issues of BOD, pretreatment, and fresh water supply will be addressed fully in the final engineering plans of the plant. (The feasibility of using desalinated water will also be explored.)  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>***</B></div> <div> <B>     Surimi processing had its beginning 1000 years ago in Japan. It is part art and part technology.</B></div> <div> <B>     Surimi is a fish minced meat that has been leached by washing with water, mixed with other food additives and then frozen. The final product is a gel material that can be used as a protein food to which extracts of other fish products can be added for select taste requirements. The final product has less than one percent fat content.</B></div> <div> <B>     In its marketable form, surimi, known in oriental circles as "kamaboko," is marketed as imitation crabmeat, imitation lobster, or as imitation scallop. In our area of Massachusetts surimi is marketed under the Maruha Group and sold in supermarkets such as SHAW'S and Stop-n-Shop.</B></div> <div> <B>     Surimi was first introduced to the United States in the 1970's and in Europe in the 1980's.</B></div> <div> <B>     The general ingredients for surimi currently marketed in Japan, Thailand, and South Korea utilizes several kinds of whitefish including bream, croaker, big eye fish, and round or Pacific hake. Using the term "white fish" to relate to all previous mentioned species, the processor adds the following: water in large quantities for successive washings, wheat and/or tapioca starch, egg white, soybean oil, salt, sugar, isolated soy protein, flavor (as mentioned previously under extracts) seasoning. (1)</B></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>RAW SURIMI AND SURIMI BASED PRODUCTS</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     Fish flesh is separated from bones and skin. Water is added to remove soluble components and fats. The raw surimi is a wet concentrate of myofibrillar proteins that then forms into a gel. The functional properties of these proteins are maintained by mixing with cryoprotectants such as sugars and alcohols., then quick frozen and stored. (4)</B></div> <div> <B>     The final gel material can be dehydrated from a variety of grades. This material is in a tasteless, powder form to which extracts can be added to meet the taste requirements of the current market needs.</B></div> <div> <B>     The by-products of this manufacture are oils and bone waste. These materials under the scrutiny and manufactory skills of processors can be converted to marketable products such as pharmaceuticals and meals. (2)</B></div> <div> <B>     Further marketing possibilities exist in that surimi has been used successfully in restaurants that feature surimi products. These uses vary from soups, salads, pâtés, fish balls, fish sausage, sushi, and spring rolls.</B></div> <div> <B>     The project to which "SURIMI" is referenced is the "Pelagic Fish Economic Development Project": the major difference between the surimi manufactories in this project as contrasted to that of the Pacific Rim manufactory is the utilization of fish species which in this case are dark meat fish, whereas Pacific manufactories utilize whitefish predominantly.</B></div> <div> <B>     The dark meat fish this project utilizes are pelagic fish of   mackerel, herring, and menhaden (in season).</B></div> <div> <B>     The Atlantic menhaden is one of the most important fish species found off the Atlantic and Gulf coats. The fish seldom exceed a pound in weight having extremely oily flesh. Menhaden are found in very large schools in warmer inshore waters. They follow an annual coastal migration each year. They travel in large, densely packed, schools making them a ready harvest for vessels equipped with purse seines. Their vast number supports large fisheries, providing both oil and meal for industrial/agricultural uses. (8)</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>MACKEREL</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>     Atlantic mackerel is distributed in the Northwest Atlantic and has shown an increase in harvest potential. (9).</B></div> <div> <B>     The Pelagic Fish Economic Development Project utilizes under-used (dark meat species of fish) common to local fishing habitats. The demand for fish protein worldwide is increasing faster than traditional resources can supply.                   </B></div> <div> <B>     Hultin and Kelleher (5) have developed a new process for surimi production in spite of possible problems associated with small pelagic fish processing methods. Their sources highly suggest that surimi produced from fresh sardine ordinary muscle has a quality equal to the high grade Alaska Pollock surimi. (5)</B></div> <div> <B>Mackerel surimi has a high content of oil in the muscle. In the Hultin-Kelleher patented process model, surimi yield is doubled when compared to traditional white fish surimi yields. In white fish surimi the yield averages between 15-20 per cent. In the H-K pelagic fish surimi process the yield averages 35-40 percent.</B></div> <div> <B>In this process the fish is beheaded, gutted, filleted and then the process extracts specific proteins at specific dissolution rates. Once the fish is ground, water is added at a proportion of 9 parts water to 1 part fish….the homogenized  material has citric acid added resulting in a   suspension which is then centrifuged to form oils, a clear solution, and bone waste. It is estimated by Kelleher that 12,000 to 15,000 metric tons of fish will yield 5000 metric tons of surimi. (meeting with K at University of Massachusetts Marine Research Station at Gloucester, Massachusetts on June 21, 2001).</B></div> <div> <B>Headed and gutted fish can be used directly because skin and bones are readily removed in the process. Pollution control costs are lower. (5) Wash water is capable of reuse several times. Additive components do not contribute to pollution. The by-products of oil and waste can be processed by ordinary standard means to produce marketable oils and meal. </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>The surimi process: (4)</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>   1. manual sorting of fish stock</B></div> <div> <B>    </B></div> <div> <B>   2. washing and scaling</B></div> <div> <B>     </B></div> <div> <B>  3. fillets are made</B></div> <div> <B>      </B></div> <div> <B>  4. belt drum separator</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>  5. leaching at  least two washes</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>  6. any remaining particulate matter can be retrieved  by a mechanical decanter  and the remaining particles can be added to the gel product</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>  7. blend cryoprotectants (sugars/alcohols)</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>  8. final gel product frozen in blocks</B></div> <div> <B>  </B></div> <div> <B>              </B></div> <div> <B>Machinery specifications are unknown to the researcher.</B></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>BIBLIOGRAPHY</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>1 Pacific Marine Foods: http.//www.surimi Thailand.com.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B> 2 Fishery Industrial Technology Center: http://www.sfas.uaf.edu.8000/FITC/processing</B></div> <bR> <div> <B> 3 "Surimi and the Decline of Alaskan Pollock" http://www.counterpunch.org./pipermail/counterpunch-list 2000-December/004300.html.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B> 4 Body: http:// www..nabard.org./whats/surimi.html.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>  5. "Surimi and Surimi Seafood" Jae W. Park    Marcel Dekker / April 2000</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>   6  "Surimi Technology" Tyre C. Lanier; Chong M. Lee   Marcel Dekker / Feb 1992</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>    7  Hultin, Herbert and Kelleher, Stephen: University of Massachusetts Marine Research Station, Gloucester Massachusetts 01930   conversation with  Stephen Kelleher June 21,2001.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>  8 National Marine Fisheries Service: http://www.fishingnj.org./promenh.html.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>  9  "Status of fisheries: Resources of Northern US "Atlantic mackerel". http:www.nefsc.nmfs.gov./SOS/flt.</B></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <B> </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>c. Functional Integration of Management Tasks</B></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>The topic of Functional Integration of Management Tasks is very important. There is much to be said. For the time being, it is only possible to quote from one of Carmine Gorga's papers entitled Fisheries Renewal:  A Renewal of the Soul of Business   [The Catholic Social Science Review, Volume II (1997) 145-161.]  Stuart B. Weeks was the co-author of this paper. </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>We need to create new institutions in conformity with a new principle, a principle that we like to call Functional Integration. This is a form of organization that attempts to obtain the complementary benefits of vertical or horizontal integration as well as those of total independence. The Functional Integration (FI) Model attempts to gather activities together that are already related in accordance to their function. This is a new form of organization that is designed to lead to social harmony and civic responsibility. After all, do we not all share a common goal? Simply put, is not this goal the achievement of a civilized society? </B></div> <div> <B>Figure 3 suggests the forms this type of integration might assume within the seafood industry. Let us conceive of all participants in the seafood industry as owning in common all the hardware: From fishing boats to seafood processing plants; from institutes for the industry to educate the consumer, and be educated by the consumer, to laboratories for the research and development of all possible means of utilization of renewable marine resources; from trucks to stores. The hardware would be under the stewardship of a group of people organized into a SuperESOP, whose Board of Directors is elected by all the owners. The owners exercise all the rights and enjoy all the privileges of owners, as the stockholders of democratic organizations do and ought to do. The SuperESOP would attend to the financing and maintenance requirements of the hardware, and independent teams of entrepreneurs would be making that hardware operational, by leasing it -- from whom? from themselves. If each team organizes itself with the assistance of individual ESOPs, so much the better. The essential point is that the independence of each team is fully preserved by concentrating the operation of functions, rather than concentrating control over people. </B></div> <div> <B> </B></div> <div> <B>Functional Integration Within the Seafood Industry </B></div> <div> <B>Figure 3 </B></div> <div> <B>The nearest equivalent to this type of social integration is a shopping mall that would be owned by all owners and employees of stores operating within the mall. This is in contrast to the conventional structure in which the malls are owned and operated by independent concerns, in which instance stores simply rent space within the mall, pay rent, and are provided with all the services that are needed in common. In this case, quite rightly, all capital gains (or losses) that accrue from the operation of the mall belong to the owners of the mall. In the FI Model, capital gains or losses accrue to owners of the hardware; and whatever profits accrue from the rental of the hardware belong only to the teams that rent the hardware. Beyond the legitimate concerns of health, safety, and public welfare, the state, or the public in general, has no say on any of the operations of the FI Model. </B></div> <div> <B>This structure might not be born full blown. It might be necessary to assemble it piece by piece. And there might be two or more SuperESOPs for each port. But, clearly, the more trust, the more cohesion, the more benefits. If, through a SuperESOP, the participants in the industry own as much of the hardware as possible, many things can be done more efficiently. At a bare minimum: </B></div> <div> <B>The SuperESOP can enforce the requirements of quality assurance to the consumer: This assurance can be provided only if the various elements of the industry collaborate with each other. Today this collaboration occurs quite rarely, and when it does it is mostly due to chance: One processor here, two fishermen there; </B></div> <div> <B>The SuperESOP can enforce efficiency standards for the utilization of each and every piece of hardware undreamed of by individual entrepreneurs. Unnecessary duplication of equipment and even operations would cease. For instance, boats might be treated like airplanes, they would not be waiting for the crew to rest before they would be turned around to go fishing again. And the boats might not need to be the same as those of today. They might be smaller, faster, more efficiently operated and equipped; </B></div> <div> <B>The SuperESOP can reach efficiency standards in purchasing supplies and equipment, borrowing money, and attending to all other financing requirements of a modern business -- including purchasing insurance -- that individual entrepreneurs cannot obtain; </B></div> <div> <B>The SuperESOP can set up maintenance schedules of all machinery and equipment in a way that individual entrepreneurs cannot achieve; </B></div> <div> <B>The SuperESOP can create and administer a first rate information system regarding marketing and biological data with the aim of rationalizing the capture and raising of each species as well as the timing of landings of fish, thus ensuring that temporary gluts -- with their depressing effects on pricing -- would no longer occur; </B></div> <div> <B>The SuperESOP can nurture first rate research and development laboratories. Special attention could be given especially to development, thus easing the process of technology transfer from the laboratory to the industry; </B></div> <div> <B>The SuperESOP can foster specialization of activities that small, independent, individual entrepreneurs cannot achieve. A boat owner, a fish farmer, or a seafood processor today has to be at least an expert in finances, engineering, and real estate. What do these operations have to do with catching fish, raising it, or processing it? With a SuperESOP, the boat owner, fish farmer, and the seafood processor would simply organize a team of people and devote all their time and expertise to catching the fish, raising it, and processing it. And all teams would preserve their independence at the same time. Whatever money the team that leases boats or fish farms or stores makes is its own money, its own reward. </B></div> <div> <B>This model of social and economic integration can be applied to any set of industrial or commercial enterprises. To name one specific example, one day it might be possible to organize along these lines commercial establishments on Main Street of any city or town in the United States. The first such SuperESOP might even be called "Main Street USA". </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>******* </B></div> <div> <B>We will have to return to this topic. For the time being, the Visitor might learn more about the rationale for this management model by either accessing any website that treats the topic of chaordic (Chaos & Order) forms of organizations or by reading Thomas Petzinger Jr.'s The New Pioneers: The Men and Women Who Are Transforming the Workplace and Marketplace (1999). A good place to start might be Chaordic Exploration by The KaosPilot University. </B></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>