CLXXII REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FIP.HERTES. 



AN ACT TO PROVIDK FOl! TIIK T|{()TK("TI<)N OK TIIK SALMON KISHKRIKS OF ALASKA. 



Be if enacted by Ihe Senate and House of Iicprenentativea of the United State/i of America 

 in Congress assembled, That the erection of dams, barricades, or other ohstriictious 

 in any of the rivevg of Alaska, with the purpose or result of preventing or impeding 

 the ascent of salmon or other auadromous species to their spawning-grounds, is 

 hereby declared to be unlawful, and the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby author- 

 ized and directed to establish such regulations and surveillance as niaj' be neces- 

 sary to insure that this prohibition is strictly enforced and to otherwise protect 

 the salmon fisheries of Alaska; and every person who shall be found guilty of a vio- 

 lation of the provisions of this section sliall be fined not less than $250 for each 

 day of the continuance of such obstruction. 



Skc. 2. That the Commissioner of Fish aiid Fisheries is hereby empowered and 

 directed to institute an investigation into the habits, abundance, and distribution 

 of the salmon of Alaska, as well as the ])rcsent conditions .and methods of the fish- 

 eries, with a view of recommending to Congress such additional legislation as may 

 be necessary to prevent the impairment or exhaustion of these v.alnable fisheries, 

 and placing them under regular an'd permanent conditions of production. 



Sec. 3. That section 195(! of the Revised Statutes of the United States is hereby 

 declared to include and apply to all the dominion of the United States in the waters 

 of Bering Sea; and it shall be the duty of the President, at a timely season in each 

 year, to issue his proclamation and cause the same to be published for one month in 

 at least one newspaper, if any such there be, published at each United States port 

 of entry on the Pacific coast, warning all persons against entering s.aid waters for 

 the purpose of violating the provisions of said section; and he shall also cause one 

 or more vessels of the United States to diligently cruise said waters and arrest all 

 persons, and seize all vessels found to be, or to have been, engaged iu any violation 

 of the laws of the United States therein. 



THE WHALE FISHERY. 



Considered with reference to the number of vessels employed, tliis 

 important fishery continues the decline which began many years ago, 

 although the high price of whalebone has tended to keep up the value 

 of the fishery. During the jiast thirty years, at the beginning of each 

 decade corresponding with the year 1891, the whaling fleet was made up 

 as follows: 1861, 423 vessels; 1871, 218 vessels; 1881, 101 vessels; 1891, 

 92 vessels. The average price of bone per pound during each of these 

 years was as follows: 18G1, $0.06; 1871, $0.70; 1881, $1.63; 1891, 

 $5.38. The value of the bone may therefore be regarded as a fair cri- 

 terion of the status of the fishery, the highest average price ever 

 attained being coincident with the smallest fleet. The fishery con- 

 tinues to have its principal headquarters at San Francisco, which, in 

 addition to maintaining a large local fleet, is also the rendezvous of 

 about a third of the vessels hailing from i^ew Bedford. 



The receipts of whale products at United States ports in 1891 con- 

 sisted of 13,015 barrels of oil from sperm whales, 14,837 barrels of oil 

 from other species of whales, and 297,708 pounds of bone, the whole 

 having a value at the wholesale market ])rice of about $2,100,935. 



The sperm oil was practically all taken in the Atlantic Ocean. It is 

 reported that at the end of the year the pursuit of sperm whales had 



