42 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 



best means available have been used to alleviate a critical situation 

 until the final cure, through added legislation, can be effected. 



ALASKA LEGISLATURE. 



At its regular session early in the year 1923, the Territorial Legis- 

 lature of Alaska passed several laws bearing upon the fisheries. One 

 of these added materially to the license-tax rates on products and on 

 certain fishing apparatus, another provided for the licensing of fish- 

 ermen, and the third imposed certain closed seasons on fishing in 

 the waters of southeast Alaska. 



ALASKA FUR-SEAL SERVICE. 

 GENERAL ACTIVITIES AT THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 



The administrative work on the Pribilof Islands vfus carried on in 

 the usual manner by the bureau's staff of 15 white employees. The 

 population of the two islands consists of about 325 native men, wo- 

 men, and children, who carry on the physical work of sealing and 

 foxing and other activities, supervised by the bureau's representatives. 

 Compensation for these services is in the form of nominal cash pay- 

 ments for the work of taking seal and fox skins, together with sub- 

 sistence, including food, fuel and clothing, and living quarters, school 

 facilities, and medical attention. In addition to the island natives, 

 from 50 to 60 native laborers are secured each year from the Aleutian 

 Islands for the period of active sealing. 



The work of the bureau on the islands covers a wide range, for, 

 in addition to sealing and foxing operations, it involves the erection 

 of buildings, construction of roads, maintenance of machinery and 

 equipment necessarily various in so remote and isolated a region, 

 construction and repair of small boats used for landing cargo, in- 

 stallation of water-supply and electric-lighting systems for the 

 villages on each island, operation of a by-products plant for the 

 production of oil for use in dressing sealskins, preparation of seal 

 meat for feeding foxes during the winter season, and the keeping of 

 extensive records of all activities. 



Supplies for the Pribilof Islands were transported from Seattle by 

 chartered commercial vessels during the summer of 1922, but in 1923 

 it was again possible to secure cargo space on the naval radio tender 

 Gold /Star, which also transported a number of passengers for the 

 bureau. Passengers and small lots of supplies were also carried by 

 vessels of the Coast Guard and by the commercial steamer Buford 

 in the spring of 1923. 



The process of removing pelts by stripping from the body of 

 fur seals, developed within the last two or three seasons, was con- 

 tinued along more extensive lines. This process requires certain 

 marginal cuts to permit the literal pulling off of the pelt, but does 

 away with the use of knives, as formerly, for separating the skin 

 from the underlying tissues. This reduces or practically eliminates 

 cuts, to the consequent enhancement of the value of the pelts. The 

 improved process of stripping necessitates washing and blubbering 



