PACIFIC COD FISHERIES 403 



Island, during the summer, and it is probable that investigation 

 will some day disclose many other inshore banks at various places 

 along the Aleutian Islands where cod can be caught at all or at some 

 masons of the year. 



But little is known of the inshore banks on the north side of the 

 Alaska Peninsula, mainly because, owing to the lack of safe and 

 convenient harbors adjacent to the banks, shore stations can not be 

 operated. 



BANKS OX THE ASIATIC SHORE 



But little is known of the extent of the cod banks along the Sibe- 

 rian coast, as no detailed or even sectional surveys of them have been 

 made. Our own vessels have done more toward showing their extent 

 and productiveness than those of any other nation, except possibly 

 Japan. The principal banks lie in the Okhotsk Sea and the Asiatic 

 side of Bering Sea. How far north the fish range is still undeter- 

 mined, but it is probable that they will be found about as far north 

 on the Asiatic shore of Bering Sea as they are on the American 

 shore; that is, to St. Lawrence Island. They are said to be found as 

 far south as Chosen (Korea) and northern Japan. 



HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC COD FISHERY 



The history of the Pacific cod fishery is a record of the strenuous 

 struggle of a few individuals and companies against its giant brother 

 on the Atlantc coast, which, backed by great wealth, the prestige 

 and advantage gained by years of unopposed command of the Amer- 

 ican markets, an almost unlimited supply of raw product, and at 

 times the ability to import from the eastern Provinces of Canada 

 large supplies free of all duty, has had an immense advantage over 

 its younger and weaker brother. On this coast it has not been a 

 question of being able to secure cargoes, but has been one of finding 

 a market for the catch : a vastly greater catch could be made were 

 a market available for it. 



The fact of the presence of cod in Alaskan waters has long been 

 known. In the speech of Hon. Charles Sumner 21 on the cession of 

 Russian America to the United States, and which had such a power- 

 ful effect in favor of the treaty of cession then pending, is an 

 abstract of the references made by early navigators and visitors in 

 Alaska to its fishes. The first mention was made by a Russian 

 navigator in 1765, who reported " cod, perch, pilchards, smelts," as 

 being found around the Fox Islands. Other navigators and 

 explorers who reported the presence of cod were Cook (1786), Port- 

 lock (1787), Meares, Billings (1792), Langsdorf (1804), Sutke, and 

 Sir George Simpson (1841), all of whom speak of it as being a very 

 common fish. But little use was made df it, however, owing to the 

 abundance of salmon. 



It is reported that in 1866 two or three small schooners fitted out 

 at Victoria, British Columbia, and fished with fair success on the 

 grounds immediately north of the Nass River. It is a question 

 whether this fish was the true cod or one of the several unrelated 

 species which bear the common name of cod. 



11 Speech of Hon. Charles Sumner, of Massachusetts, on the cession of Russian America 

 to the United States, 48 pp. Washington, ISO". 



