114 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES 
SALMON 
The commercial catch of salmon in Alaska in 1988 was somewhat 
smaller than that of the preceding year, although well above the 
general average, being the fourth largest in the history of the industry. 
The chief decline was in the catch of pink salmon. The number of 
reds and cohos, on the other hand, showed a substantial increase over 
1937, with the result that there was an increase in the total volume of 
salmon products. 
Phenomenal runs of red salmon occurred in the Bristol Bay area, 
and the catch was the largest ever recorded for that region. This 
unusual abundance was attributed in part to the fact that, during the 
migration of the runs from the Pacific, comparatively small catches 
were made on the south side of the Alaska Peninsula, where unfavor- 
able weather conditions hampered fishing operations, particularly in 
the early part of the season. Although the total number of red salmon 
taken in central Alaska was somewhat less than in 1937, there was an 
increase in the pack of this species, indicating a larger average size of 
the fish. Among the districts which showed a gain in output of canned 
red salmon were the Kodiak area, Cook Inlet, and Prince William 
Sound. There was an increase also in the various districts of south- 
east Alaska, except the west coast of Prince of Wales Island. 
Pink salmon were less abundant than in the 2 preceding years in 
each of the three major districts of Alaska, although the Prince William 
Sound and Cook Inlet areas showed substantial gains over the produc- 
tion for 1937. An increase in the catch of cohos was rather generally 
distributed, except that no fall fishing for this species was carried on 
in the Copper River and Bering River areas. Fewer chum salmon 
were taken than in 1937, but the volume of products showed an in- 
crease. There wasa decline in both the catch and pack of king salmon. 
The total catch of salmon decreased about 6 percent from that for 
1937. By districts, there was a decrease of about 11 percent in south- 
east Alaska and 14 percent in central Alaska, while in western Alaska 
the catch increased 19 percent. 
There was a decrease of about 20 percent in the number of fathoms 
of seines, and an increase. of about 11-percent in the number of fathoms 
of gill nets used in Alaska in 1938, as compared with the previous year. 
CatcH AND APPARATUS a 
The total number of seines used in the salmon industry in 1938 was 
801, of which 646 were purse seines and 155 beach seines. The purse 
seines ageregated 97,310 fathoms of webbing, and the beach seines 
14,419 fathoms. The number of gill nets used was 4,711, having a 
total length of 327,649 fathoms. There were 166 driven and 290 
floating traps—a total of 456. This number includes 4 traps in the 
Chignik district that were installed merely to hold the locations, as 
well as several traps elsewhere in the Territory, termed ‘‘dummy”’ 
traps, the catches of which were negligible. 
Southeastern Alaska was accredited with 447 seines, or a total of 
73,475 fathoms, a decrease of 85 seines and 17,101 fathoms of webbing 
from the number used in 1937; also with 427 gill nets, aggregating 
28,225 fathoms, an increase of 43 nets and 3 265 fathoms of webbing; 
and with 29 driven and 257 floating traps, a decrease of 3 driven traps 
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