Fishing vessels could contribute to the war effort by continuing to catch food. American tuna fishing expanded rapidly during the Second World War to support the distribution of canned goods. The figures cited are that tuna at times provided 55 percent of America's fishery catch and up to 20 percent of the protein distributed overseas in American canned goods. No supporting statistical source is identified for those figures. Portuguese- and Italian-American fishermen are credited with doing much of this work. In this account, wartime fleet expansion also helped establish tuna's later place in everyday food.
Notable Point · 1:07:22-1:08:45
American tuna fishing and wartime food supply
America's expanding tuna fleet supported wartime canned-food supply and helped establish tuna's later place in everyday diets.