CIF-132 Roe 'Picker'

The CIF-132 Roe 'Picker' was designed for mounting directly onto an Arenco CIF filleting machine. The primary goal was to utilize herring for food fillets that would normally be sent to meal plants after roe/milt removal. The main reason that the 'roe' herring was never considered good for the food fishery is due to the fact that once the belly has been removed by hand, it is very difficult to get anything that resembles a desirable fillet. Therefore, since the fish was going as waste (or meal) anyway, no effort was made to treat the fish with ice or normal care that would be provided to food herring. It always seemed such a waste, to have large crews employed only to remove the roe and milt and throw the rest of the fish away; when the same crews could be putting the fish through the herring machines producing fillets and collecting the roe & milt at the same time. Of course, such a unit never existed, so only nominal attempts were ever made at using some of the carcasses for fillets. [The fillets are not 'roe removed fillets', but normal lean fillets.]