58 IT. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



HERRING 



Notvvil hsliiiuliiii;' coiitimicd ('coiiomic (Icprcssioii and the cousc- 

 quently lower pricos ])rovailin<2; lor oil, nioal, and pickled fish, opera- 

 tions in the herring industry were on a somewhat larger scale than 

 in the preceding year. However, the output of Scotch-cured herring, 

 although showing a gain over that for 1929, was far below the average 

 for the previous decade. The production of oil was the largest in the 

 history of the industry, but the quantity of meal showed a decline 

 from the record output of 1929. While the total quantity of herring 

 products exceeded that of the preceding year by more than 1,500,000 

 pounds and the quality of the piclded product was generally better, 

 the lower level of prices in 1930 resulted in a net decrease in value of 

 some $660,000. 



Herring were present in fair quantity in all of the principal fishing 

 districts except Cook Inlet, where the commercial pack was a com- 

 plete failure. Some prospecting was done there by two companies 

 with seines in the summer and by gill-netters in the fall, but without 

 success. During the summer fairly large schools of herring were 

 observed at various places in the Cook Inlet district, but the fish 

 were not suitable for pickling. In the Prince William Sound and 

 Kodiak Island regions, herring were abundant, although many were 

 of smaller size than is desirable for the best grade of Scotch-cure. 

 There was a marked decline in the output in western Alaska, and that 

 district, which in 1929 supplied nearly 77 per cent of the total pack 

 of Scotch-cured herring in Alaska, produced approximately 46 per cent 

 of the 1930 pack, as compared with 37 per cent from central and 17 

 per cent from southeastern Alaska. 



Heavy runs of herring occurred in the Chatham Strait region of 

 southeastern Alaska during the season, w^hile in Stephens Passage 

 there were far fewer fish than in previous years. An unusually large 

 run of spawning herring appeared in the vicinity of Sitka in the early 

 part of April. In accordance with their usual practice, natives 

 collected large quantities of herring spawn on hemlock boughs in this 

 region and shipped the commodity to Juneau, Haines, and other points. 

 While there was reported a larger catch of bait herring than in pre- 

 vious years, some 425,000 pounds were imported from British Colum- 

 bia by one of the cold-storage plants at Ketchikan. 



Three floating plants were used in the herring industry — the motor 

 ship Donna Lane and the schooner Rosamond, belonging to the Uto- 

 pian Fisheries (Inc.) and the North American Fisheries, respectively, 

 which operated in both the central and western districts, and the 

 schooner Alice Cooke, purchased from the Aurora Fish Co. by the 

 Kalgin Packing Co. and operated at Dutch Harbor. The barge Fori 

 Union, which had formerly been operated as a herring-reduction plant 

 by the Port Armstrong Herring Co. in southeast Alaska, sank at its 

 mooring in Ship Cove, Baranof Island, during the winter of 1929-30. 

 It was subsequently raised and sold for the salvage of lumber and 

 other material. 



As in previous years, the production of oil and meal centered chiefly 

 in southeastern Alaska, where all but one of the plants engaged in this 

 business prepared Scotch-cured herring also, the production of which 

 increased from 1,244,250 pounds in 1929 to 1,382,895 pounds in 1930. 

 The output of by-products in the southeastern district decreased from 

 23,872,093 pounds of meal and 3,120,307 gallons of oil in 1929, to 

 19,502,823 pounds of meal and 2,943,915 gallons of oil in 1930. 



