62 FISHERY AND FUR INDUSTRIES OF ALASKA IN 1912. 



During the spring of 1912 the cold-storage plant of the New- 

 England Fish Co. at Ketchikan was increased to nearly four times 

 the capacity of the original plant built in 1908. The total capacity 

 is now 6,000,000 pounds, and there are facilities for handling 100,000 

 pounds daily. Tliis is one of the largest plants in the country 

 devoted exclusively to freezing fish. 



The process of freezing halibut in Alaska is conducted in a manner 

 which insures a very high-grade product. The fish are brought in 

 carefully packed in ice. They have been eviscerated aboard the 

 vessel at the fishing grounds the same day of their capture. As 

 soon as landed they are beheaded, weighed, and thoroughly washed, 

 to go immediately to the sharp freezers, where they are placed on 

 trays and frozen hard for 24 hours in a temperature of from 10° to 

 20° F. They are then dipped in fresh water four or five times, 

 giving a glazing or coating of ice about one-sixteenth inch thick. 

 The temperature of this room is held approximately at 12° F., as are 

 also the storage rooms, where the fish are stacked up Uke cordwood 

 to be held awaiting shipment. 



Preparatory to shipment, the fins are trimmed off and the fish 

 are reglazed by one dipping chiefly for the purpose of covering the 

 cuts made in the trimming process. After this each fish is Avrapped 

 separately in a sheet of vegetable parchment, around which is put a 

 sheet of smooth finish manila wrapping paper. The fish are then 

 placed in substantial boxes of about 370 pounds capacity. These 

 boxes are Uned with the same kind of paper used as the outside 

 wrapping for each fish. 



The boxes are then put aboard steamers and placed in cold storage 

 compartments. Upon arrival at Seattle, or other terminal, some 

 three or four days later, they are loaded into refrigerator cars pre- 

 viously cooled for 24 to 36 hours, and are dispatched at once to the 

 distributing centers, chiefly in the larger eastern cities, and par- 

 ticularly in the New England States. 



As thus handled the frozen hahbut from Alaska are thoroughly 

 wholesome, and with the careful methods now usually followed by 

 the distributing agents and retailers a first-class food product is 

 assured the consumer. 



STATISTICAL SUMMARY. 



The statistical tables for Alaska heretofore published have not 

 included certain steamers nor their catch from Alaska waters landed 

 for convenience at Vancouver or Seattle. There has also in the past 

 been a segregation of operations into a vessel catch and a shore 

 catch. These features have been modified in the present report to 

 include all vessels fishing Alaska waters, and no dift'erentiation is 

 now made between the so-calletl vessel and shore catches. 



