Measuring fish aboard a factory trawler isn’t a simple task.
“If you put a land scale out at sea, the motion of the vessel — or the motion in the ocean – would keep the scale from reading correctly, and you wouldn’t be able to settle on a weight,” says Jennifer Waston, who works for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Watson specializes in catch accounting, and she says that keeping track of all the fish that’s caught and processed on the Bering Sea involves sensitive machinery that’s recalibrated constantly. The flow scales look like fancy conveyor belts, and are able to weigh thousands of pounds of fish every day.
But even though this gear is very sophisticated, it can still be manipulated. Just like any scale on land can be tipped to bring its owner a little extra profit.
“The perfect example would be the butcher weighing your meat and putting his thumb on the scale,” says Watson.
American Seafoods stands accused of committing the fisherman’s version of that offense. Instead of selling less for more, the company is charged with taking more fish than allowed.
