22 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



g;ive employment to both whites and natives, thus servinfj; to minimize 

 the efl'ect of the diminished mai'ket for dried hsh due to the increasing 

 displacement of dog; teams l)y airplanes as a means of transportation 

 for passengers and fur shipments. 



Only one cannery, a floating plant belonging to the International 

 Packing Co., was engaged in the district during the season. Its oper- 

 ations, however, were not very successful, and it left for the Alaska 

 Peninsula on July 9. Conditions in the bay are said to be unfavorable 

 for fishing, because the strong tides and shallow water on the flats 

 make it difficidt to operate purse seines and gill nets. 



The first king salmon entered Kuskokwim River on June 4, and the 

 run continued fairly good for about a month, after which a few were 

 caught from time to time up to August 15. Good runs of reds and 

 chums were entering the river on June 15, and cohos started running 

 July 18, continuing until the last of August. Large catches of salmon 

 were made all along the river by the local residents, but the rainy 

 weather caused a great many of the fish to spoil before drying, even 

 when the racks were covered. 



Two white fishermen and 343 natives fished in the river for local 

 requirements, using 805 gill nets of 12,085 fathoms, 55 wheels, and 

 several small boats. The products consisted of 5 barrels of piclded 

 kings, 350K tons of dried chums, and 31 tons of dried cohos. It is 

 estimated that approximately two-thirds of the reported output of 

 dried salmon was lost through spoiling because of wet weather. 



YUKON RIVER 



Commercial fishing in Yukon River for export from Alaska is 

 prohibited, but the usual operations were carried on for local require- 

 ments and to supply the market for dried salmon throughout the 

 interior of Alaska. Inspector C. F. Townsend and one stream guard 

 patrolled the fishing grounds during the season. 



The patrol boat Coot left the Government ways at Nenana for the 

 mouth of the river on May 19. The break-up of ice on the Yukon 

 this spring was unusual. Generally, after the ice starts to move, the 

 river is cleared in seven or eight days; but this year, although the 

 ice had broken up at Nenana on May 7, there was one ice jam after 

 another all the way from Ruby to Russian Mission, bacldng the 

 water over the banks in many places to a depth of from 4 to 5 feet 

 and causing considerable damage to smokehouses and fish wheels. 

 From Kaltag to Holy Cross the vessel was running in ice practically 

 the entire distance, and in several places it was necessary to turn 

 back and go upstream to keep out of the jams. The mouth of the 

 river was reached on June 4, and at that time Bering Sea from Kotlik 

 to St. Michael was still full of ice, which remained until June 1 1 . 



White residents at Marshall reported that when they began cutting 

 ice on April 1 for summer use there were large numbers of whitefish 

 in the river. They estimated that in the first half of April about 50 

 tons of these fish were taken with dip nets, the natives from Mountain 

 Village and Russian Mission participating in the operations. The 

 fish ranged in size from one-half to 3K pounds. It is a common prac- 

 tice for the natives to maintain traps under the ice to capture white- 

 fish, but ordinarily their catch amounts to only a few hundred fish 

 each winter. 



