FISHERY INDUSTRIES. 11 
PATROL BOATS. 
One of the important duties of the Bureau in Alaska is the main- 
tenance of a patrol for the enforcement of the fisheries laws and 
regulations. This work has been confined chiefly to the waters of 
southeast Alaska, where fishing operations are more intensive than 
in other parts of the Territory. Facilities and funds have been en- 
tirely inadequate for even most ordinary demands, although im- 
provements are hoped for soon. As a step in this direction, Congress 
appropriated $10,000 in 1916 for the purchase or construction of two 
patrol boats for the Alaska fisheries service. In December a contract 
was made for the construction of these boats at Seattle. It is ex- 
pected that they will be in readiness for service in the summer of 1917, 
These boats will be 48 feet in length and 124 feet in breadth and will 
be equipped with 25-30 horsepower, heavy-duty engines of western 
make, These boats are to be of the seaworthy, purse-seine boat type 
familiar to the Pacific coast. There will be accommodations for a 
crew of three forward, and a cabin aft will accommodate three persons. 
These boats will be of material assistance in the patrol work, but 
they ought to be supplemented by at least two other boats of similar 
construction for southeastern Alaska and by two boats approximately 
65 feet in length for the more exposed waters of central Alaska, and 
still further by the addition of two larger vessels for the remote and 
exposed waters of western Alaska and Bering Sea. As in seasons 
past, it has been necessary for the Bureau’s agents to accept gratuities 
in the way of transportation from companies engaged in the com- 
mercial fishery. This is objectionable in every way, but until such 
time as more boats are provided for the inspection service, it will be 
practically impossible to reach some of the sections without occa- 
sionally traveling on boats owned by the fishery companies. 
The inadequacy of the Bureau’s facilities for patrol work in the 
Afognak-Kodiak region is evidenced by the fact that one of the agents 
has been forced to use an open dory, with a small outboard motor, for 
inspection purposes in the waters of that region. On account of the 
heavy weather experienced frequently and the exposed character of 
these waters, it is expecting altogether too much of an employee to 
risk his life in the perils of such work. 
The patrol work in southeast Alaska in 1916 was accomplished by 
the Bureau’s steamer Osprey (23 tons) and the chartered power boats 
Murrelet (6 tons) and Standard (15 tons). Two smaller power boats 
were also chartered for brief periods. In central Alaska the auxiliary 
schooner Nimrod (8 tons) was under charter for a few weeks for 
use on Cook Inlet and to the westward, and the power boats 
Shamrock (7 tons) and Prospector (7 tons) were chartered for short 
periods for use in the Prince William Sound region. In western 
Alaska a small power boat was used for a short time to patrol 
6111°—17——16 
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