The reasons advanced for exemption of employment in ``shore''
operations, now listed in section 13(b)(4), at the time of the adoption
of the original exemption in 1938, had to do with the difficulty of
regulating hours of work of those whose operations, like those of
fishermen, were stated to be governed by the time, size, availability,
and perishability of the catch, all of which were considered to be
affected by natural factors that the employer could not control (see 83
Cong. Rec. 7408, 7422, 7443). The intended limited scope of the
exemption in this respect was not changed by transfer of the ``shore''
activities from section 13(a)(5) to section 13(b)(4). The exemption of
employment in these ``shore'' operations may be considered, therefore,
as intended to implement and supplement the exemption for employment in
``offshore'' operations provided by section 13(a)(5), by exempting from
the hours provisions of the Act employees employed in those ``shore''
activities which are necessarily somewhat affected by the same natural
factors. These ``shore'' activities are affected primarily, however, by
fluctuations in the supply of the product or by the necessity for
consumption or preservation of such products before spoilage occurs (see
Fleming v. Hawkeye Pearl Button Co., 113 F. 2d 52; cf. McComb v.
Consolidated Fisheries, 174 F. 2d 74).
