PACIFIC SALMOTT FISHERIES. 141 



fish. The resulting powder, called "fish flour," is easy to transport 

 from one place to another and has great nutritive value. It is 

 probable that the tailpieces of the fish, which are at present thi'own 

 away, and the cheaper grades of salmon might be prepared in this 

 way and thus fui^nish another market for salmon. 



, MEAL, FERTILIZER, AND OIL. 



As early as 1888 there was a small plant at Astoria, Oreg., where 

 the refuse of the canneries was utilized for the manufacture of oil and 

 fertilizer. In that year 8,000 gallons of oil (chiefly from salmon 

 heads) and 90 tons of fertilizer were prepared. The oil was worth 

 22^ cents per gallon and the fertilizer had a market value of $20 



fer ton. Most of the refuse was dumped into the river, however, 

 n 1898 a similar plant was established in the Puget Sound district 

 of Washington. At present the plants of the Robinson Fisheries Co. 

 at Anacortes; the Pacific American Fisheries at Eliza Island, near 

 Bellingham; the Wannenwetsch Reducing Co., at Blaine; and the 

 Japanese-American Fertilizer Co. on Lummi Island, all on Puget 

 Sound, operate quite largely on the oflal from the Sound salmon can- 

 neries. 



In 1882 the Alaska Oil & Guano Co. established a fertilizer plant at 

 Killisnoo, Alaska, for the extraction of oil and fertilizer from nerring, 

 and has operated the plant continuously ever since. In some years 

 large quantities of whole salmon have been handled at this plant, 

 and the resulting product was found to sell as well as that from 

 herring. 



In Alaska the Fish Canners By-Products (Ltd.), in 1914 built a 

 laigo plant at Waid Cove, near Ketchikan, where salmon ofTal is 

 used in the preparation of fertilizer, meal, and oil. The company is 

 now experimenting in the preparation of various chemical products 

 from th(^ law material. 



Probably the most serious evil in the salmon industry to-day is the 

 enf)rmous wastage which annually occurs. About one-fourth of the 

 total weight of each fish handled at the various packing plants is 

 thrown away. With the exception of the tailpiece, which is dis- 

 carded at some canneries owing to the excessive amount of bono 

 which would be in the product if canned, this waste material could 

 not be utilized as food, comprising as it does the head, viscera, fins, 

 and tail. When not conveniently near the very few fertilizer plants 

 at present in operation this product is either allowed to pass through 

 chutes into the water under the cannery, or is dumped into scows and 

 towed to the ocean or the deeper waters of the sounds, and there 

 thrown overboard. This procedure is not only exceedingly wasteful, 

 but is also far from beneficial to the waters wnere deposited. 



The great desideratum in the salmon fisheries of the Pacific coast 

 at the present time is the invention of a small odorless fertilizer 

 plant, costing not more than S2,500 or S.S,000, which can be installed 

 at the various salmon canneries and salteries. The offal from the 

 cannery could there be utilized and the product obtained would 

 doiibth'ss net a fair return on such an investment, while at the same 

 time the present (in the aggregate) enormous waste would })e stopped, 

 and the waters adjacent to the canneries rendered far more agreeable 

 to the fishes as well as to the people on shore. It is absolutely essen- 



