no REPORT OF ALASKA INVESTIGATIONS. 



The canneries should take steps at once to either burn this offal or utilize it in making fertilizer and oil 

 This is one of the conditions that makes the surroundings at a cannery insanitary and creates an unwhole- 

 some atmosphere for the men and women who are employed there. 



It is a good thing for southeastern Alaska that a plant for utilizing the fish-cannery waste has been 

 established recently, and those interested in canneries should cooperate heartily with its promoters and 

 assist them in every way to remove the offal from their canneries. The towns, too, should take some 

 speedy and decisive action that will put an end to the practice of some canneries along this line which 

 is injurious from every standpoint. 



UTILIZATION OF CANNERY WASTE. 



No enterprise yet launched in Alaska means more in certain ways to the Territory than that under- 

 taken last spring at a plant at Wards Cove for the purpose of converting cannery waste into oil and fertil- 

 izer. In addition to the utilization of cannery waste, the plant will also use sharks and nonedible fishes. 

 Operations were carried on for a period of about 60 days in the past season and the results were encourag- 

 ing. Several vessels were employed in collecting cannery waste. 



The owners of a number of canneries signed contracts disposing of such waste at very reasonable 

 figures, extending over periods of from one to five years. Others, however, refused to sell the refuse, 

 in spite of the fact that the oil and fertilizer concern offered a fair price and was willing to build receptacles 

 for the stuff at the canneries and call for it. Inasmuch as the accumulation of this waste material at the 

 canneries causes inconvenience as well as insanitary surroundings, it strikes me that every cannery should 

 be glad to give away this offal that has hitherto been polluting the waters of Alaska. 



Now that an opportunity has presented itself for relieving the settlements and towns of the filth that 

 has surrounded them, it is hoped that in another year the managers of all places within reach, where fish 

 are being utilized, will cooperate with this new enterprise and do everything they can to make it a success. 



It is understood that the company operating the plant at Wards Cove is contemplating the erection 

 of several more plants of a similar character in Alaska, two in southeast Alaska and one or more to the west- 

 ward. I had thought seriously of recommending a plan for individual fertilizer plants at each cannery, 

 but they would not be necessary if the waste were utilized elsewhere. The operation of a small fertilizer 

 and oil reduction plant in connection with each cannery is much less likely to be productive of satisfactory 

 results than the operation of a large establishment devoted wholly to this work and employing skilled and 

 experienced operatives. 



FUR-BEARING ANIMALS. 



Alaska is the last frontier region of this country and much of it is so isolated and difficult of access 

 that it is as yet largely unexplored by the white man ; but the tendency is increasing each year to work back 

 into this vast area and secure the valuable skins of the various fur-bearing animals. So far, this tendency 

 has been confined mostly to those who spend their time trapping and hunting, killing everything and any- 

 thing at any time of the year, regardless of any law or of how little value the fur may have at the time. 

 This short-sightedness, and I may say wholesale killing, which has been conducted in some sections, is 

 producing its results, and now it is necessary to reach back into less accessible places in order to keep up 

 the supply of furs. The fact that Congress has made provision for but seven wardens to patrol, for the 

 protection of fur-bearing animals, the nearly 600,000 square miles of Alaskan territory indicates that they 

 have had almost no protection at all. It would take many times that number of wardens to secure adequate 

 protection for them. 



The present law makes it a misdemeanor to kill fur-bearing animals except during such open seasons 

 as may be prescribed by the Secretary of Commerce. The law, however, forbids only the actual killing 

 of those animals, and it does not enable the Department to enforce effectively prohibitions upon certain 

 other acts which are readily recognized as being as detrimental to their conservation as the actual killing. 

 If the fur-bearing animals of Alaska are to be preserved, there must be a law broad enough to cover every 

 detail, so that there will be no possible chance for offenders to go free, as they do now under the existing 

 imperfect act. And, furthermore, the Secretary of Commerce should have the right to make such regula- 

 tions as he deems proper from time to time, based on the reports of men who understand the varying condi- 

 tions, which are so radically different in various parts of the Territory. 



