SPECIAL INVESTIGATION OF SALMON FISHERY IN CENTRAL AND 



WESTERN ALASKA. 



By C. H. Gilbert and Henry O'Mallet. 



LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL. 



September 20, 1919. 

 The Commissioner of Fisheries, 



Washington, D. C. 



We inclose herewith a report on the salmon fisheries of central and western Alaska, 

 based on our observations in the field during the past summer, taken in connection 

 with the history of the district in former years. 



We have stated at length our conviction that the industry has now reached a critical 

 period, in which the salmon supply of Alaska is threatened with virtual extinction, 

 unless a radically new administrative policy be substituted for the one now in force. 



The crisis is made more acute by the exhaustion of the salmon fisheries in Puget 

 Sound, due to prolonged overfishing in the face of persistent warnings like the one 

 we here present concerning Alaska. The numerous well-equipped canneries of this 

 southern district are confronted by the necessity of suspending operations in the near 

 future. Their supplies and machinery will become available for the Alaska field, 

 which they will certainly invade wherever promising sites can be obtained. Unless 

 effective governmental control can be secured to prevent further invasion of a district 

 which already suffers the evil results of unrestricted competition, certain disaster 

 will befall the salmon fisheries of Alaska. 



Respectfully submitted. 



0. H. Gilbert, Special Assistant. 

 Henrt O'Malley, Field Assistant. 



GENERAL SITUATION AND SUGGESTED REMEDIES. 



During the season of 1919, the writers visited the Copper River, 

 Cook Inlet, Bristol Bay, Ikatan and King Cove, the Karliik River, 

 and Kodiak. With the exception of Chignik, which was not visited, 

 these localities comprise all the most important fishing districts in 

 central and western Alaska. They form the home par excellence 

 of the most important species of Alaska salmon, the sockeye or red 

 salmon; and they produce some 90 per cent of the entire Alaska 

 sockeye pack. Also, they are wholly dependent on this species. 

 In central Alaska, it is true, not unimportant packs of pinks and 

 chums are now put up, but it remains true of central Alaska, as it 

 does to an even greater extent of western Alaska, that the continued 

 existence of the salmon industry is dependent on the preservation 

 and maintenance of the red-salmon runs. 



These have been drawn on heavily since the earliest days of the 

 salmon industry in Alaska. The red salmon alone was then sought 

 as the only species having any considerable commercial value. 

 Other species were taken incidentally or to fill out the pack where 

 red salmon in a given year were not to be obtained in adequate 

 numbers. A market for chums and pinks was developed progres- 

 sively but slowly with later years. Not until 1911 did the combined 

 packs of all the other species slightly exceed that of the red salmon 

 alone. 



35286°— 21 33 ^^^ 



