PACIFIC COD FISHERIES 419 



In the fall of 1902, John H. Nelson and John Einmo opened a 

 shore station at Hard Scratch, on Snug Harbor, Unga Island, but 

 operated it only one winter. In the fall of 1911 R. H. Johnson estab- 

 lished a shore station here and has operated it ever since. 



In the fall of 1905 the Blom Codfish Co., of Tacoma, Wash., built 

 a station on the north shore of Eagle Harbor, Nagai Island, and 

 operated it for a couple of years, when it was abandoned. 



In the fall of 1905 the Pacific States Trading Co., of San Fran- 

 cisco, which had just recently started in business, established stations 

 on Herendeen Island, Northwest Harbor, and at Ikatak, on Unimak 

 Island, and operated them continuously until 1909. The latter sta- 

 tion was not reopened, but operations were resumed at the former 

 in the fall of 1911, and it was operated until early in 1916, when the 

 company suspended operations and sold the station to the Union 

 Fish Co. The Ikatak was a summer station, while the one at North- 

 west Harbor is a winter station. 



In the summer of 1908 John H. Nelson, who had opened a station 

 at Hard Scratch in 1902, started a station on Squaw Harbor and op- 

 erated it every year until his death, when it passed into other hands. 

 In the earlier years of its existence stockfish formed the bulk of the 

 product, but during the last few years considerable dried salt cod 

 has been prepared. 



In 1914 A. Komedal, a merchant of Unga, established a station 

 near that town and has operated it during the greater part of the 

 time since. 



In 1910 the Alaska Commercial Co. shipped to San Francisco 

 ,i board one of its regular trading vessels about 90 tons of cod that 

 had been caught and cured by the natives of Kodiak. The fish 

 proved to be quite small, and the company had so much difficulty in 

 disposing of them that it did not repeat the experiment. 



In subsequent years occasional lots of cod were caught by fisher- 

 men living on Kodiak Island and were cured and shipped to Puget 

 Sound dealers, but the industry did not amount to much until 1917, 

 when the Northern Fisheries Co., with headquarters at Anacortes, 

 Wash., established a shore station on Kodiak Island and carried on 

 operations here and also with a small fleet of vessels. 



The demand for cod engendered by the World War b}^ this time 

 was felt all over the world, and the high prices realized drew a large 

 number of Kodiak fishermen into the business ; and until the collapse 

 came in 1921, a small fleet of vessels, mainly powered with gas en- 

 gines, and a considerable number of small sail and power vessels of 

 less than 5 net tons each, operated on the banks lying off the east 

 coast of the island, using the town of Kodiak as headquarters and 

 shipping the cured catch to Washington parts through local dealers. 



The demand for cod created by the war also led to the establish- 

 ment of numerous small local stations scattered along the Alaska 

 Peninsula and the numerous islands lying to the south of these and 

 on the Aleutian chain. Unalaska, owing to its shipping facilities, 

 was the center for several of the more important. When the slump 

 came after peace was declared, most of these stations shut down and 

 but few have since resumed operations. 



During the summer of 1916 the Union Fish Co. established a new 

 shore station on Tigaldi Island, which lies just off the entrance to 



