MANAGEMENT OF THE MARINE RESOURCES 



OF ALASKA 



Seton H. Thompson 



Chief, Branch of Alaska Fisheries 

 U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service 



Alaska's sea fisheries currently are her most valuable asset. 

 They are the basis for her most important industry, the greatest 

 field of employment for her citizens, and the chief source of her 

 tax revenue. The wealth of the Territory and the welfare of 

 her citizens parallel exactly the success or failure of fishing. 

 Times are good when fishing is good; gloom and depression pre- 

 vail when fishing is poor. 



The marine resources of Alaska which have been subjected to 

 commercial utilization include some 25 species of fish and shell- 

 fish, as well as several marine mammals, including whales, fur 

 seals, hair seals, sea lions, and walruses. The fur seals have been 

 exploited intensively and continuously for 164 years; salmon 

 have contributed substantially to the annual fishery harvest for 

 more than 80 years, and halibut for about 60 years. Herring, 

 clams, crabs, shrimp, cod, flounders, lingcod, sablefish, rock- 

 fishes, sharks, skates, and trout have had a more varied record. 



Having withstood the drain of commercial utilization for so 

 many years, it could very well be expected that the problems of 

 management have been solved. Such is not the case, however. 

 These are dynamic resources, ever changing, and the exploiting 

 forces also are highly variable. They must be kept under con- 

 stant surveillance so as to limit commercial utilization to sur- 

 plus stocks. Protective measures must be adjusted to meet 

 changing conditions both in the resources and in the industries 

 dependent upon them. 



Let us examine resource management as it has been applied 

 to several of the marine fisheries of the Territory. 



The salmon fishery probably is best known, and rightly so 

 for it yields two-thirds of the world's entire production of 



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