144 PACIFIC SALMON FISHERIES. 
A product, which was first made in Norway, is prepared by means 
of an invention which quickly dries and pulverizes the flesh of fresh 
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 thrown 
away, and the cheaper grades of salmon might be prepared in this 
way and thus furnish 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 
224 cents per gallon and the fertilizer had a market value of $20 
per ton. Most of the refuse was dumped into the river, however. 
In 1898 a similar plant was established in the Puget Sound district 
of Washington. At present the plants of the Robinson Fisheries Co. 
and Marani Products Co., at Anacortes; the Pacific American Fish- 
eries at Eliza Island, near Bellingham; the Pacific Products Co.-at 
Port Townsend, and the Japanese-American Fertilizer Co. on Lummi 
Island, all on Puget Sound, operate quite largely on the offal from 
the Sound salmon canneries. 
In 1882 the Alaska Oil & Guano Co. established a fertilizer plant at 
Killisnoo, Alaska, for the extraction of oil and fertilizer from herring, 
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 
large plant at Ward Cove, near Ketchikan, where salmon offal is 
used in the preparation of fertilizer, meal, and oil. The company is 
now experimenting in the preparation pf various chemical products 
from the raw material. 
Probably the most serious evil in the salmon industry to-day is the 
enormous wastage which annually occurs. Over 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 bone 
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 where deposited. 
