Industry: Blue Fridays

It was Blue Friday for the U.S. fishing industry. As of last week, some 46 million Catholics were no longer required to observe meatless Fridays except during Lent, and the industry lost its “captive consumers.”

This is a lot of fish to let get away. Catholics account for 24% of the U.S. population, buy far more than their share of the average 10.6 lbs. of fish per capita that Americans consume each year. University of Illinois Food Economist William F. Lomasney estimates that the new deal will result in a 10% drop in consumption, which could slice $200 million off the industry’s $2 billion yearly retail sales. In heavily Catholic areas such as Boston and Baltimore, the cut could be deeper; when meatless Fridays ended in Canada two months ago, sales in Montreal plunged 35%, have since settled at 25% below the old level.

Secular Support. Though it will be weeks before meaningful sales figures are in, U.S. Catholics seem as inclined toward fishless Fridays as their Canadian neighbors. In Manhattan an Ancient Order of Hibernians group celebrated the new regimen over platters of roast beef at an East Side pub. Jesuit-run Boston College is adding meat to its Friday menu. Across the Charles River in Cambridge, fish got a secular show of support: the Harvard Food Services office decided to keep fish on Friday, reasoning that it is “as good a day as any.”

Restaurateurs specializing in sea food are understandably alarmed. Snaps Edmund Lillys, owner of Manhattan’s Gloucester House: “We are upset to see something disturbed that has been around 1,966 years, or something like that.”* In the face of the threat, fish producers, canners and distributors have begun to fight back. Except for such giants as the Ralston Purina Co. (Chicken of the Sea and White Star canned tuna) and HJ. Heinz Co. (Star Kist), the industry has been listless in promoting fish, slow in keeping up with innovations in packaging and convenience foods. Warns New York Fishery Council Director John Von Glahn: “The industry will do a better job of marketing and put a better product in the hands of consumers, or go out of business.”

Piscine Logic. With that in mind, 40 members of the National Fisheries Institute will meet soon in Washington to plan survival strategy, including a flood of advertising. A campaign of sorts was already under way in Boston newspapers last week. Clarioned Boston Fishing Industry ads, with notably piscine logic: ANY DAY IS FISH DAY NOW!

* Not quite. Though Friday abstinence had been practiced as early as the 3rd century after Christ, it was not made compulsory until about 1,115 years ago by Pope Nicholas I (A.D. 858-867).