10 COMMERCIAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA IN 1905. 



For years the fishery was followed by San Francisco firms only, but 

 in 1891 Capt. J. A. Matheson, of Anacortes, Wash., brought the 

 schooner Lizzie Colby (142 tons) around Cape Horn and sent her to 

 Bering Sea, and he has continued in the fishery there ever since. The 

 Western Canadian Fish Company, of Vancouver, British Columbia, 

 sent a vessel to Bering Sea in 1903 and continued the venture until 

 1905, when the company failed. The Robinson Fisheries Company, 

 of Anacortes, and the Seattle and Alaska Fish Company, of Seattle, 

 sent their first vessels to Alaska in 1904. In 1905 King & Wing, of 

 Seattle, and the Blom Codfish Company, of Tacoma, entered the 

 fishery. 



FISHING BANKS. 



While most of the fishing banks were known to the fishermen in a 

 general way, it remained for the steamer Albatross to survey and plat 

 them during her investigations in Alaskan waters from 1888 to 1892.° 



Following is a summarized description of the banks, first those in 

 Bering Sea: 



Slime Bank. — This is the first of the larger fishing grounds reached 

 after entering Bering Sea through Unimak Pass. The bank begins 

 directly off the Northwest Cape of Unimak Island, is elongate in 

 shape, and follows approximately the trend of the adjacent coast to 

 within a few miles of Amak Island, its inner margin lying only a short 

 distance off the land. It is about 85 miles in length and 17 miles in 

 average width, broadening somewhat at the eastern end; its total 

 area is estimated at about 1,445 square miles, and the depths range 

 from 20 to 50 fathoms. The bank derives its name from the presence 

 of immense numbers of a large jelly-fish, measuring from 6 to 18 inches 

 across the disk, and provided with long, slender tentacles having 

 great stinging powers. These animals are not found upon the sur- 

 face, but seem to occupy an intermediate zone toward the bottom, 

 where at times they occasion much annoyance to the fishermen by 

 becoming entangled with the fishing gear. 



Baird or Moller Bank. — This is the largest bank yet discovered on 

 the Alaskan coast. It commences a few miles east of Amak Island 

 and extends northeastward off the northern side of the Alaska penin- 

 sula to the vicinity of Cape Chichago at the mouth of Ugaguk River, 

 a distance of about 230 miles. It has an average width of about 40 

 miles and an extreme width of 58 miles, its total area being estimated 

 at about 9,200 square miles. The boundaries have not been thor- 

 oughly established, and possibly comprise a greater area than is 

 stated above. 



In Kulukak Bay are numerous spots where cod are found, but none 

 are of sufficient size to entitle them to be called banks. 



a Fishery investigations of the steamer Albatross from July 1, 1888, to July 1, 1892, 

 by Richard Rathbun. Bull. U. S. Fish Com., 1892, p. 127-201. 



