ALASKA FISHERY AND FUR-SEAL INDUSTRIES, 1929 277 



SALMON 



Although the production of sahnon in Alaska in 1929 was some- 

 what less than that for 1928, when the output ranked third in the 

 history of the industry, it was on the whole very satisfactory, the 

 total value of the products heing $42,524,845, as against an average 

 of $36,494,125 for the previous decade. Of the five species of salmon, 

 there was but one — the king salmon — that showed an increase in 

 catch over the preceding year, and each of the three main districts 

 of Alaska shared in this gain. In the catch of other species, how- 

 ever, the decrease was not distributed among all districts. 



The total catch of salmon decreased approximately 20 per cent 

 from that for 1928. In southeast Alaska the catch of pinks, cohos, 

 and chums decreased, while kings and reds increased. It should be 

 noted, however, that the run of pink salmon, which is the most im- 

 portant species in this district, showed a marked improvement as 

 compared with the run at the beginning of the cycle (1927) and the 

 catch in 1929 was more than twice what it was then. In central 

 Alaska the catch of cohos was less than one-half that of the preced- 

 ing year, while reds showed a comparatively small decrease, the 

 scarcity of this species in the Kodiak area being largely offset by in- 

 creases in the Chignik and Copper River regions. The catch of 

 chums in central Alaska greatly exceeded that of any previous year, 

 while the number of pink salmon was the third largest ever taken in 

 that district. In western Alaska, where red salmon make up the 

 bulk of the catch, there was a considerable decrease of that species 

 only, but its effect was somewhat reduced by the unusually large 

 size of the fish. By districts, the decrease in catch from the previous 

 year was approximately 37 per cent in both southeastern and western 

 Alaska, while in central Alaska the catch increased 32 per cent. 



There was an increase of 8 per cent for the whole of Alaska in the 

 number of fathoms of seines used, while the number of fathoms of 

 gill nets decreased about 4 per cent and the number of traps about 

 2 per cent from those in operation in 1928. 



CATCH AND APPARATUS 



The total number of seines used in the salmon industry in 1929 

 was 795, of which 172 were beach seines and 623 purse seines. The 

 beach seines aggregated 19,679 fathoms of webbing and the purse 

 seines 98,308 fathoms. The number of gill nets used was 4,121, 

 having a total length of 288,590 fathoms. There were 292 driven 

 traps and 422 floating traps — a total of 714. 



Southeastern Alaska was accredited with 469 seines, or a total of 

 81,393 fathoms of webbing, a decrease of 4 seines but an increase of 

 834 fathoms of webbing over the number in 1928; also with 321 gill 

 nets, aggregating 25,480 fathoms, a decrease of 30 nets but an in- 

 crease of 2,813 fathoms; and with 66 driven and 378 floating traps, a 

 decrease of 5 driven and 4 floating traps from the number operated 

 in 1928. 



Corresponding figures for central Alaska show 313 seines, or 33,779 

 fathoms, as compared with 230 seines or 25,923 fathoms in 1928; 

 1,808 gill nets, or 98,030 fathoms, as compared with 1,290 gill nets 



