FISHERY AND FUR INDUSTRIES OF ALASKA IN 19 12. 



GENERAL ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT. 



By Barton Waruen Evermann, Chief, Alaska Fisheries Service. 



The Alaska Fisheries Sei-vice, orio^inally covering only the salmon 

 fisheries, then extended to all Alaska fisheries, inchuling the fur seal, 

 now covers all the other fur-bearing animals of Alaska also, this 

 new responsibility being added by the act of April 21, 1910, and 

 definitel}- provided for in the appropriation bill of March 4, 1911. 



Until 1911 the annual reports of the fur-seal service and the fish- 

 eries were published as separate documents, but in that year they 

 were combined and issued as one. The same method is continued 

 in the present report, which includes also a special report of the fur 

 wardens on the mainland. 



SALMON FISHERIES. 



INSPECTION. 



The inspection of the salmon and other fisheries of Alaska was 

 carried on during the season of 1912 in accordance with detailed 

 instructions from the Washington office. On account of the limited 

 appropriation it was possible to send to the field only three of the 

 four regular employees of the Alaska salmon service and even these 

 had to be restricted in their movements in order to keep expenses 

 within the allotment which could be made for their travel and sub- 

 sistence. As much of the territory as possible, however, was cov- 

 ered. The agent, Mr. Fred M. Chamberlain, was stationed during 

 the season in the Bristol Bay region, where he was assisted by Messrs. 

 G. Dallas Hanna, deputy fur warden, E. A. Beard, of the Yes Bay 

 Station, and C. B. Grater, of the Afognak Station. Attention was 

 given primarily to the inspection and supervision of the commercial 

 fishing operations and the canneries in the Nushagak region and to 

 a study and census of the run of sahnon in Wood River, in continu- 

 ance of the investigations begun in 1908 when Wood River was 

 closed by Department order to all commercial fishing. Lack of 

 transportation facilities made it impracticable to visit all the fish- 

 eries and canneries in the Bristol Bay region, hence only those 

 easily reached from Nushagak were inspected. 



