38 



FISHERY AND FUR INDUSTRIES OF ALASKA IN 1912. 



Summary of Products of the Alaska Fisheries in 1912, Showing Quantities 

 AND Values. 



SALMON INDUSTRY. 



The season of 1912 was marked by an unusually heavy run on 

 the south side of Bristol Bay. This was the principal factor in the 

 increase of nearly 40 per cent in the total catch for the Territory 

 over last season. The other important elements were an unexampled 

 run of humpbacks in central Alaska and a large run in Bering Sea, 

 and the utilization of an increased number of chums mainly in 

 southeast Alaska. This latter may have resulted in part in the 

 effort late in the season to bring packs up to the guarantee. There 

 was a slight falling off in the number of humpbacks used in southeast 

 Alaska; reds held theu* own in this section, but scarcely did so in 

 central Alaska. The shortage of reds in the Nushagak section led 

 to an increased pack of the inferior species there. 



APPARATUS AND CATCH. 



The tables giving the number of salmon caught in 1912, by ap- 

 paratus and species alone, for each geographic section, show an in- 

 teresting shift in the application of gear. The percentage of the 

 total catch of all species, for the three principal forms of gear, stands 

 in round numbers for the two seasons (1911 and 1912), as follows: 



Percentage of Total Catch of Salmon by Three Principal Forms of Gear. 



In southeast Alaska, whereas in 1911 60 per cent of the pinks or 

 humpbacks were taken in seines, in 1912 slightly under 49 per cent 

 were so taken. Or, stating it somewhat differently, compared with 

 the catch of 1911, in southeast Alaska, that by seines shows a decrease 

 of 2,401,099 fish, that by gill nets a decrease of 264,891, that by hand 

 lines a slight increase, and that by traps an mcrease of 4,494,295 



