142 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES 
motor vessels Gloria West (59 tons) and Sitka (50 tons), each of which 
made an expedition to the westward, the latter for the purpose of 
experimenting with an otter trawl for the taking of cod. Products 
amounted to 281,138 pounds of dry-salted cod, valued at $15,218; 6,678 
pounds of stockfish, valued at $878; and 725 pounds of tongues, valued 
at $85—a total of 288,541 pounds, valued at $16,181, as compared 
with 203,327 pounds, valued at $10,338, in 1937. 
Three sailing vessels comprised the Bering Sea fleet, the products 
of which are not included with the Alaska fisheries output because the 
vessels operate from and land their fares in ports of the Pacific Coast 
States. Of these vessels, the Wawona (413 tons) was operated by the 
Robinson Fisheries Co., and the Sophie Christenson (570 tons) and 
Charles R. Wilson (328 tons) were operated by the Pacific Coast 
Codfish Co. The Union Fish Co. did not send any boats north 
this year. 
Products of the offshore fishery were 3;065,450 pounds of dry- 
salted cod, valued at $129,572, and 14,325 pounds of tongues, valued 
at $1,340—a total of 3,079,775 pounds, valued at $130,912, as 
compared with 3,795,923 pounds, valued at $188,611 in 1937. The 
offshore fishery employed 104 persons, or 61 less than in the 
previous year. 
WHALES 
The American Pacific Whaling Co. operated only its Akutan station 
in Alaska during 1938, its other station at Port Hobron, Kodiak 
Island, standing idle. Of the 136 persons employed during the season, 
125 were whites and 11 natives. 
There were 5 steam whalers operated, or 1 less than the combined 
number for the two plants in the preceding year, and 173 whales 
were taken, consisting of 65 finback, 12 humpback, 33 sulphur bottom, 
and 63 sperm whales. 
Operations in this industry continued to be controlled by the 
International Whaling Act and regulations issued thereunder. The 
regulations of October 9, 1936, were superseded by revised joint 
regulations of the Secretary of the Treasury and the Secretary of 
Commerce approved by the President on May 18, 1938. These 
regulations were again modified in December 1938, giving effect to a 
supplementary agreement drafted on June 8, 1937, at the Inter- 
national Whaling Conference in London. An important provision of 
the new agreement was the raising of the minimum-length limit of 
certain species that may be lawfully taken. 
An officer of the Coast Guard was assigned to duty at the Akutan 
station during the season to enforce the provisions of the Whaling 
Treaty Act and the regulations. Statistical and biological data 
were collected by the Bureau and forwarded through the State Depart- 
ment to the International Bureau for Whaling Statistics, Oslo, Norway. 
Whale products in 1938 amounted to 304,800 gallons of body oil, 
valued at $103,657; 181,900 gallons of sperm oil, valued at $54,570; 
396 tons of meal from meat, valued at $15,796; and 216 tons of bone 
meal, valued at $5,618—a total value of $179,641, as compared with 
$479,121 in 1937. 
