30 



ALASKA FISHERIES AND FUR INDUSTRIES IN 1917. 



southeast Alaska had 72 floating and 243 driven, gains of 5 and 55, 

 respectively; central Alaska had 136 driven pound nets, a gain of 

 42 over 1916, the increase being largely due to the operation of two 

 new canneries in the western part of the district; and western 

 Alaska had 19 driven pound nets as against 24 in 1916, a decrease of 5. 



Taking Alaska as a whole, there was an increase of 31 per cent in 

 the number of fathoms of seines operated in the salmon industry in 

 1916; the number of fathoms of gill nets employed increased 19 per 

 cent; and pound nets increased 26 per cent in number. 



Of the total catch of salmon in Alaska in 1917, 39 per cent was 

 taken by pound nets, 32 per cent by seines, 28 per cent by gill nets, 

 and 1 per cent by lines and dip nets. In 1916, seines caught 36 per 

 cent of the salmon taken in Alaska, pound nets 33 per cent, giU nets 

 30 per cent, while other appliances caught the remaining 1 per cent. 

 The catch by pound nets in 1917 increased 6 per cent, but tne catch 

 by seines and giU nets decreased 4 and 2 per cent, respectively. The 

 following table shows the proportionate catch by districts according 

 to the principal kinds of apparatus used: 



Percentage op Salmon Caught in Each District by Principal Forms of Gear. 



Alaska produced a total of 92,600,495 salmon in 1917 as against 

 72,055,971 in 1916, an increase of 20,544,524. There was an increase 

 of 22,482,783 salmon in southeast Alaska and 1,605,605 in western 

 Alaska, but central Alaska declined 4,306,439. Further comparison 

 of the catch of Alaska as a whole with that of 1916 shows that chums 

 increased 1,147,864, humpbacks 13,067,308, and reds 6,763,804. 

 Cohos declined 350,078, and kings 84,674. 



As of further interest in this connection, it may be stated that a 

 total of 599 seines used in the salmon fisheries of Alaska took 

 29,381,979 salmon, an average of 49,052 per seine; a total of 470 

 pound nets used in the same fisheries caugnt 36,091,649 salmon, an 

 average of 76,790 per pound net. The relative efficiency of the two 

 forms of gear was at the ratio of 5 to 8 in favor of pound nets. 



