REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. CLXXI 



lieet in the Gulf of St. Lawrence was tlie smallest in many years, 

 numbering only 13 sail, and the average yield pei- vessel was only 110 

 barrels, while on the New England and Nova Scotia shores the average 

 catch w^as 270 barrels. An unusually large catcdi was made by the boat 

 fishermen on the coast of Maine. 



The fish were mostly of the size and quality which in salted fish 

 represent No. 3's. The average wholesale prices per barrel of salt fish 

 were $18 for No. I's, $13 for No. 2's, and $8 for No. 3's. The schooner 

 Jjizzie M. Center, of Gloucester, made the largest stock, landing 909 

 barrels of salt mackerel, which sold for $13,820. 



THE PACIFIC SALMON FISHERY. 



The condition of this important industry received much attenti(m 

 from the fishing interests of the west coast and was also the subject of 

 a Congressional inquiry addressed to the U. S. Commissioner of Fish 

 and Fisheries, whosfe report,* treating especially of the salmon industry 

 of Alaska, contains an account of the business for the year covered by 

 this review and obviates the necessity for giving an extended notice 

 of the subject in this ])lace. 



The salmon pack in the United States and Alaska in 1891 amounted 

 to about 1,300,000 cases, of which 800,000 cases were prepared in 

 Alaska and 390,000 in the Columbia Eiver. The pack in Alaska was 

 the largest ever made, and resulted in a flooded market, the outcome of 

 which was an agreement among the owners of the canneries to reduce 

 the output in 1892 to 400,000 cases and to close all but nine canneries. 



It is gratifying to be able to record a tendency to a change of senti- 

 ment among the well informed fishermen -as to the possibility of greatly 

 reducing the supply of salmon by indiscriminate methods and the 

 necessity for x^ermitting a fair proportion of the fish to reach their 

 spawning-grounds unmolested. Within ten years it has been asserted 

 by canuers and fishermen on the Columbia Eiver that the supply of 

 salmon in that stream is inexhaustible, but the fishing in recent years 

 has been disappointing, and the testimony of many prominent persons 

 might be cited in support of the statistics which show a gradually 

 diminishing output. 



It is worthy of notice that at a cannery on the Karluk Eiver, Alaska, 

 a private hatchery was maintained and 5,000,000 fry of the red salmon 

 {Oncorhynclius nerJca) were liberated. This practice can not be too 

 highly commended and should be generally carried out, on account of 

 the cheapness and facility with which the hatching can be done and 

 the important results which nmy be expected. In order to provide for 

 the i)rotection and maintenance of the salmon in Alaska, the U. S. 

 Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries recommended to Congress the 

 following measure, which became a law in March, 1892: 



* Report oftlie Commissioner of Fisb and Fisheries relative to the Salmon Fisheries 

 of Alaska. Senate Mis. Doc. No. 192, Fifty-second Conj^ress, tirst session. Wash- 

 iu"tou, 18'J2. 



