132 



U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



BY-PRODUCTS 



The Marine Products Corporation again used its schooner Meteor 

 as a reduction plant for the manufacture of salmon by-products in the 

 vicinity of Ketchikan, and one other company in southeastern Alaska 

 also engaged primarily in this business. Employment was given tO' 

 18 white shoresmen and 2 white transporters. A herring-reduction 

 plant in the southeastern district and four salmon canneries in central 

 Alaska likewise manufactured salmon oil and fertihzer. The total 

 production was 932,834 pounds of fertihzer, valued at $26,935, and 

 32,374 gallons of oil, valued at $13,650, as compared with 1,477,300 

 pounds of fertihzer, valued at $38,339, and 53,004 gallons of oil, 

 valued at $21,850, in 1926, or a decrease in 1927 of approximately 37 

 per cent in amount of fertilizer and 39 per cent in quantity of oil. 



Production of salmon oil and fertilizer in Alaska in 1927 



HERRING 



The herring industry in Alaska in 1927 was marked by a further 

 decline in comparison w4th operations of recent years. Notwithstand- 

 ing the fact that the production of pickled herring in southeastern 

 Alaska was more than twice the amount prepared in that district in 

 the preceding season, the failure of the runs in the central district 

 caused the pack for Alaska as a whole to fall about 7 per cent below 

 that of 1926. Only short spurts of good fishing were experienced in 

 Prince Wilham Sound and the Kodiak-Afognak region, and the runs, 

 in general, throughout the Territory w^ere smaller than in previous 

 years. The production of Scotch-cured herring was the lowest since 

 1923, vrhile the output of oil and meal was the smallest for three years. 



The number of floating plants in operation was augmented by the 

 S. S. Peralta and the S. S. LaJce Mirajlores in southeastern Alaska. 

 As in the preceding year, the Puget Sound Reduction Co. used its 

 barge, the Fort Union, as a herring-reduction plant in the vicinity of 

 Port Armstrong. With the exception of the ZR3, of the Nassau Fish 

 Co., which was not operated, and the addition of the schooner Alice 

 CooTce (781 tons) of the Aurora Fish Co., a newly organized firm, the 

 same floating plants were used in central Alaska as in the season of 

 1926, namely, the Rosamond (1,035 tons), operated by the North 

 American Fisheries; the Esther (222 tons), by Ottar Hofstad; the 

 Salvator (385 tons), by Libby, McNeill & Libby; the Donna Lane 

 (1,597 tons), by the Utopian Fisheries Co.; and the La Merced 

 (1,342 tons), by the Nassau Fish Co. In addition to the foregoing, 

 several small floating plants were operated by a number of other 

 concerns in various localities. 



Agitation to ehminate herring-reduction plants in southeastern 

 Alaska continues, the argument being that these operations are 

 destrojang the available supply of herring and consequently depleting 



