ALASKA FISHERY AND FUR-SEAL INDUSTRIES Wa 
fishing apparatus. The total reported losses in southeast Alaska 
amounted to $22,985; those in the central district, $34,058; and in 
western Alaska, $53,192. 
Other losses are known to have occurred, of which records are 
incomplete. One small cannery, that of A. N. Nilson, at Portlock, 
was destroyed by fire in the winter of 1937-38, but no information is 
available as to its value. 
The most serious disaster was the loss of the purse-seine boat 
ieee with the entire crew, somewhere in the vicinity of Dall 
sland. 
Thirty-one lives were lost during the year—14 in southeast, 10 in 
central, and 7 in western Alaska. In the southeastern district 7 
fishermen were drowned, 3 shoresmen and 1 transporter met death in 
accidents, and 2 shoresmen and 1 transporter died of disease. Two 
fishermen, 3 shoresmen, and 1 transporter were drowned in central 
Alaska, 1 fisherman and 2 shoresmen died of disease, and 1 shoresman 
committed suicide. In western Alaska 2 fishermen were drowned 
and 1 fisherman, 3 shoresmen and 1 transporter died of disease. 
STATISTICS 
Ninety-eight canneries were operated in Alaska in 1938, or 15 less 
than in the previous year. Employment was given to 22,280 persons, 
as compared with 24,865 in 1937, a decrease of 2,585. White em- 
ployees decreased 806, natives 536, Chinese 179, Japanese 254, 
Filipinos 548, Mexicans 243, Puerto Ricans 3, and miscellaneous 44; 
while Kanakas increased 20 and Negroes 8. 
The total pack of canned salmon was 6,806,998 cases, valued at 
$36,636,897. This is an increase of 2 percent in quantity but a 
decrease of about 18 percent in value from the production in 1937, 
when the pack amounted to 6,669,665 cases, valued at $44,547,769. 
Average prices of all species were considerably lower in 1938 than in 
the previous year. 
The output of canned salmon in southeast Alaska decreased from 
2,933,896 cases in 1937 to 2,713,948 cases in 1938, or 7 percent; in 
central Alaska the decline was from 2,216,359 cases to 2,179,765 
cases, or about 2 percent; while in western Alaska the output increased 
from 1,519,410 cases to 1,913,285 cases, or about 26 percent. By 
species, in Alaska as a whole, the pack of cohos increased from 137,317 
cases in 1937 to 222,321 cases in 1938, or about 62 percent; chums, 
from 730,832 cases to 786,753 cases, or about 8 percent; and reds from 
2,106,669 cases to 2,521,233 cases, or about 20 percent; while the 
pack of pinks decreased from 3,625,379 cases to 3,232,878 cases, or 
about 11 percent; and kings from 69,468 cases to 43,813 cases, or 
about 37 percent. : 
Details are included in the following tables to show comparison of 
the 1938 pack with the average for the 5 preceding years, 1933 to 
1937, by cases of each species and by districts. Cohos and reds show 
gains of 17 percent and 23 percent, respectively, over the 5-year 
average, while chums declined about 4 percent, pinks 7 percent, and 
kings 13 percent. By districts, the pack in 1938 increased approxi- 
mately 2 percent over the 5-year average in central Alaska and about 
41 percent in the western district, while in southeast Alaska there 
was a decrease of 12 percent, making a net increase of 3 percent over 
the 5-year average for all of Alaska. 
