60 FISHERIES OF ALASKA IN 1907. 



BELUGA, OR WHITE WHALE. 



The beluga is mucli sought after by the natives, who use it for food 

 and other purposes. It is quite abundant in Cook Inlet, in central 

 Alaska, and in Bristol Bay, where the natives pursue it in bidarkas 

 with guns and spears. The spears have large skin floats attached, 

 which when the animal is struck hamper its movements and also help 

 to keep it at the surface before and after death. In Bristol Bay the 

 beluga appears in June and remains until freezing weather sets in. 

 The natives consume all products secured, none being sold. 



WHALES. 



Early in 1907 the whaling station of the Tyee Company at Tyee, 

 in Murder Cove, at the lower end of Admu-alty Island, in southeast 

 Alaska, was completed, but as the steamer to be used in whaling was 

 not ready for delivery imtil autumn, the station was operated but a 

 few weeks before the end of the season. Eight whales were secured, 

 but as none of the products had been marketed at the close of the 

 year, it has been thought best not to show these in the statistical 

 tables for this year, but to include the prepared products in next year's 

 report. The company employs from 90 to 100 men and uses the 

 Svend Foyn method in killing the whales. It is the intention to 

 prepare oil and fertilizer fi'om the catch. The balfena from the gills 

 will be saved, and while this is not as good as the whalebone from the 

 right whale, yet it has a fair value. The cleaned bones of the whales 

 will be shipped. This station is very favorably situated for whaling, 

 as the waters adjacent to it are the haunts of large schools of finback, 

 sulphur-bottom, and humpback whales. 



The operation of what might be called floating whaling stations in 

 Alaska waters is being considered by certain Norwegian interests. A 

 large steamer equipped with tanks for whale oil and carrying coal, 

 barrels, etc., and the machinery for trying out the blubber, together 

 with a couple of small steamers to be used in catching the whales, 

 would be the equipment used. 



After an absence of over two years, nearly all of the Arctic Ocean 

 whaling fleet, with headquarters in San Francisco, retiu-ned late in 

 the fall with the biggest catch in years. The 8 vessels of the fleet 

 caught about 82 whales, which, at the high prices prevailing for 

 whalebone, will net the owners a handsome profit. Each vessel 

 reported whales very abundant this year. As this fleet has its head- 

 quarters in California, nothing relating to it appears in the statistical 

 tables of this report. 



The natives along the Arctic shore of Alaska do some hunting with 

 small boats for whales and walrus, and sell the ivory and bone secured 

 to the whalers. This year the natives at whaling stations east of 



