PACIFIC SALMON FISHERIES. 



17 



It had been supposed that the other species did not feed when in 

 coastal waters, but Marsh and Cobb ° state quite differently: 



Other species of salmon, in addition to the king, are found to take the trolling hook. 

 For several weeks in July trollers in Union Bay, in southeast Alaska, caught a number 

 of cohos and humpbacks while trolling for kings. The humpbacks were caught 

 mainly with a spoon, no bait being used. Most of them appeared to have been feeding 

 on needlefish and herring, according to the cutter who dressed them. A few red 

 salmon are reported to have been caught on the trolling line by fishermen operating 

 for king salmon in the neighborhood of Mary Island, near Dixon Entrance. Several 

 fishermen report ha^'ing in previous years frequently taken dog salmon on a hook in 

 the bays along Chatham Strait. 



In 1909, Mr. J. R. Heckman, of Ketchikan, Alaska, a well-known 

 cannery man, told the -writer that, while he was trying to install a 

 floating trap near Cape Chacon, at the lower end of Prince of AYales 

 Island, soutneast Alaska, he on several occasions observed red salmon 

 feeding on what he called a red shrimp. 



This was also observed in 1912, when Dr. Gilbert reported, in con- 

 nection with his observations of salmon fishino; on Swiftsure Bank, off 

 the Straits of San Juan de Fuca, that ''during the past summer it 

 was observed by Mr. J. P. Babcock and the writer that the sockeye on 

 the Bank were feeding extensively on a small shrimp-like crustacean 

 {Thysaiuxssa spinifera, Holmes), which floats in incredible numbers 

 on the tides and forms a favorite food for the other species as well as 

 for the sockeye." ^ He also found all the other species feeding vora- 

 ciously in this neighborhood. 



The experience of the fishermen operating in and off Port Moller, 

 in Bering Sea, also affords confirmatory evidence along this line. A 

 cannery was established on Port Moller in 1913, the avowed purpose 

 of the owners being to catch what they claimed would be the enor- 

 mous schools which annually resort to the ^reat rivers of Bristol Bay, 

 some 210 miles to the eastward from Port Moller. This cannery made 

 a fairly hirge pack for a season or two, using purse seines in iiering 

 Sea and traps along the shore. Misled by this, three other canneries 

 were built in 1910 and 1917. In a season or two the catches of the 

 combined plants had dropi)ed to much less than the catch of the one 

 cannery when operating alone, thus showing that the fishermen were 

 operating on a run which was local to that neighborhood. This ig 

 borne out by the fact tliat the Bristol Ba}' runs sIiowimI no appreciable 

 diminution wh(>n the catch was lowest at Port Moller. The pack of 

 the Port Moller canneries follows. 



Pack of the Poht Moller Canneries. 



a The Fisheries o( Alaska In 1909. By Millar C. Marsh and John N. Cobb. U. S. Bureau of Fisheries 

 Document No. 730, p. 26. Washington, 1910. 



b The Salmon on Swiftsure Bank. By Charles 11. (Jilbert. lieport of British ColiimbiaCommissioner 

 of Fisheries for Y(^r ending Dec. 31, 1912, uiid Appendix, p. I 10. Victoria, British Columbia. 



11312°— 21 2 



