Figure 2.--Comniercial canned pack of Cook Inlet king 

 salmon 1923-59. (Case is forty-eight 1-pound cans.) 



steaders in remote areas. Because of their 

 large size, excellent quality, and early ap- 

 pearance in the season, king salmon were 

 heavily utilized. 



In 1958, Alaska fishery regulations pro- 

 vided that residents could take salmon for 

 personal use with commercial fishing gear. 

 No license, permit, or registration was re- 

 quired, and no catch or possession limit was 

 stipulated. Personal-use fishing was regu- 

 lated by closing certain areas and streams 

 to all fishing and by limiting the length of gill 

 nets and the distance between them. Further, 

 commercial fishing regulations were applied 

 to the personal-use fishery during the com- 

 mercial fishing season. 



after 1956, further indicating the decline is 

 probably real and not a result of the regula- 

 tions. 



PERSONAL-USE FISHERY 



The personal-use fishery is extensive in 

 Alaska. Subsistence fishing was essential to 

 survival in the early days of Alaska's develop- 

 ment, particularly to the natives and home- 



Set gill nets in the personal-use fishery 

 could be no more than 15 fathoms in length per 

 fisherman and had to be set at least 100 yards 

 apart. Before 1959 the personal-use fishery 

 was prosecuted in salt water and in many of 

 the fresh-water streams utilized by king 

 salmon. In 1959 the regulations were modi- 

 fied to permit net fishing in fresh water for 

 personal use on the main stem of the Susitna 

 River only. Here the set gill nets had to be 



Table 3, -- Numbers of king salmon in weekly set gill net catches. 

 Cook Inlet, May 25 to June 30, 1956-59 



1/ A statistical week, which begins on Sunday and ends on Saturday, is 

 the unit of time used by the Bureau in Alaska for recording catch statistics. 



