Renaissance Man of Cannery Row: The Life and Letters of Edward F. Ricketts

1946–1948

To Department of Oceanography University of Washington Jan. 8, 1946 Dept. of Oceanography University of Washington, Seattle, Wash. Gentlemen: I am wondering if you have any serial records of volumetric total plankton other than those reported in Thompson, Johnson and Todd 1928, Johnson and Thompson 1929, and Thompson and Johnson 1930. Probably the fact that nothing of the sort has been published indicates that no additional observations have been made. However it seems possible that ¤gures for the remainder of 1929 might be at hand, to complete two consecutive calendar years. A revision of “Between Paci¤c Tides” is in the of¤ng. While I cannot be sure that a resume of plankton work on this coast would be publishable there, or even suitable, still I have become interested personally in liaison work of this sort. It might be fun to attempt to diatom production ¤gures—up there and in southern California. Perhaps this has been done already. With the end of the war, and the end (we can hope!) of the paper shortage, I presume that publication of the phytoplankton calendar mentioned in Phifer and Thompson 1937 will be forthcoming. Or has it already appeared and I’ve missed it? Sincerely, E. F. Ricketts 1946–1948  Bob Gibbon was collector of customs and commissioner of immigration for the navy stationed in San Francisco during the war. In a letter dated January 15, 1946, he wrote the following to Ricketts: “I hope you remember me. [ . . . ] Libby Cass brought me over for several very pleasant wine and record evenings while I was twiddling my thumbs as CASA. [ . . . ] Have been told shark-¤shing has been pro¤table off the Calif. coast, primarily for the liver and the vitamin (s) therein. [ . . . ] You are the only person I know who would [be able to] give me the dope.” To Bob Gibbon January 25, 1946 Dear Bob: It happens I do know something of the shark situation. And glad to tell. Livers of some sharks are among the most valuable of all sources of vitamin A. Others have very little value. It depends mostly on the species, secondly on the sex ([males] are more potent but any of us could have guessed that!), then on age and lastly on condition. Old male soup¤n shark livers are best of all. Up to twelve and ¤fteen dollars per pound at one time were paid for such livers and at ¤rst the ¤shermen had literally [a] treasure trove. Now the soup¤n on this coast has been depleted to the point where little is done with it except incidentally by the commercial ¤shermen, and new ¤elds are being sought to conquer. At the same time the price ceilings have been depressed, perhaps with the government’s decreasing vitamin requirements. Still however there is something left in the way of a market, and somewhere there must be adequate supplies to ¤ll it. My uncon¤rmed impression is that not many of the tropical sharks have high vitamin content. And many of them I know are too low to bother with. 220 / LifeandLettersofEdwardF.Ricketts A pamphlet which has just been issued which you could recommend to them down there is “Guide to commercial shark ¤shing in the Caribbean area.” Fishery lea®et No. 135, Fish and Wildlife Service, Wash. D.C. 1945. 149 pp illustr. On second thought, never mind; I will write from here asking them to mail it to you direct. Save at least a couple of weeks. Speci¤cally: Only the liver is valuable. The vitamin content of the viscera has been much discussed. It has some A. But so little, it’s so hard to extract and goes bad so quickly it doesn’t pay to fool with it. And to 2) and 3), both yes. Per below. Take samples of the liver of a given species (but don’t mix up samples from more than the one species), chop them up, put them in a kettle, bring to 180º F for a short time (heating depletes Vit A) long enough only to sterilize and extract the oil. Draw it off directly into a clean screw-cap can (8 oz. sample is ¤ne, even smaller will do), keep out of the air and light, send at once with letter to: Percy H. Fish, Head, Vitamin Oil Dept., California Packing Corporation 101 California St., San Francisco 19, Calif. This is not a good or...