Not much is known about the other 

 fisheries of the fax north because of their 

 remoteness. The Kuskokwim River has signi- 

 ficant runs of all saln»n except pink, while 

 Unalakleet River sporadically produces pink 

 salmon in abundance. Chum salmon occur in 

 most of the northern streams. 



A study has begun on the native 

 personal-use fisheries of the Yukon and 

 Arctic that will provide considerably more 

 knowledge than is now available on the 

 utilization of SJilmon, as well as other 

 species. 



REVIEW OF THE MARINE FISHERIES 



Herring 



The herring catch in Alaska is uti- 

 lized principally in a reduction industry, 

 the products of which are oil and meal. In 

 addition, a bait fishery accounts for a 

 small proportion of the total catch. In the 

 early period of the herring fishery, much 

 of the catch was Scdted and/or pickled, but 

 at the end of the First World War (1918) the 

 market for Alaska herring as food products 

 declined, and the only pickled fish produced 

 at the present time are for personal use. 



After an early but slow start, the 

 production of herring oil and meal reached 

 considerable prof»rtions, and in 1937 more 

 than 138,000 tons of fish were taken for 

 reduction purposes. As in other herring 

 fisheries of the world, the Alaska catch is 

 often dependent on the presence of one or 

 two strong broods (year classes), and fur- 

 ther, as in other herring fisheries, envi- 

 ronmental conditions can apparently produce 

 profound effects on the size of the stocks. 

 For these reasons, and also possibly because 

 of overfishing, the herring catch in Alaska 

 declined to alarming levels in 1942. By 

 1946, however, the catch again reached a high 

 level — only to drop to an eill-time low in 

 1949. Such fluctuations in production ham- 

 per the development and expansion of the 

 industry. In recent years the catch of her- 

 ring in Southeastern Alaska hais been limited 

 by quota. 



Three areas in Alaska are fished for 

 herring — the inshore waters of Southeastern 

 Alctska, Prince William Sound (including 

 Resurrection Bay), and around Kodiak Island. 

 The contemporary reduction fishery takes 



39.898 

 TONS 



Figure 33. — Total Alaska herring catch. 



place in sumaer using purse seines. The 

 bait fishery, which utilizes about 3,000 

 tons of herring annually, employs pounds 

 and traps and a small number of gill nets. 

 The bait herring are marketed locally in 

 both the fresh and frozen state. 



In 1958 the reduction fishery failed 

 to maintain its upward trend in production, 

 and the total catch for Alaska was 41,788 

 tons (figure 33). Although the catch in 

 Southeastern Alaska was excellent (36,185 

 tons) and above the long-term average for 

 the past quarter century. Prince William 

 Sound and the Kodiak district produced the 

 poorest catches on record (3,892 and 1,711 

 tons respectively). 



As in the two preceding years, the 

 fishery was largely supported by the sur- 

 vival of the 1953 spawning. These age-group 

 V fish accounted for more than 80 percent 

 of the catches in Southeastern Alaska and 

 the Kodiak area. In Prince William Sound 

 the availability of age-group V weis low, 

 and 47 percent of the catch was from the I 

 and II year age groups (figure 34), which 

 are not ordinarily utilized commercially. 



Twenty-two boats participated in this 

 year's fishery, 14 in Southeastern Alauska 

 and 4 each in Kodiak and Prince William 

 Sound. The catch per boat-ton day remained 

 high in Southeastern Alaska, which had a 

 seasonal average of 1,100 pounds per unit 

 of effort (figure 35). This is slightly less 

 than the average for 1957, although it is 

 350 pounds more than the Southeastern Alaska 



24 



