COMMERCIAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA IN 1905. 15 



THE HALIBUT FISHERY. 

 HISTORY. 



The halibut is now one of the most extensively sought species in our 

 commercial fisheries. For many years the Atlantic banks amply sup- 

 plied the constantly growing demand, but ultimately these began to 

 show the effects of the heavy drain upon them, and then the impor- 

 tant eastern fishing companies began to turn their attention to the 

 Pacific, where large banks had been reported. 



The inception of the industry on the Pacific coast may be said to 

 have been about twenty-one years ago, when several schooners from 

 Port Townsend, Wash., began to fish off Cape Flattery, but their 

 catches were small. A few years later an eastern fish firm established 

 a branch at Tacoma, which caused a transfer of the business almost 

 entirely to that city. In the meantime, a demand had been created 

 in the West for Pacific halibut, and in a few years more the fish 

 houses of Seattle began to compete for the fish caught by the schooners, 

 with the result that the trade shifted to that city, and the bulk of 

 the schooner trade has been done there ever since. At the present 

 time the International Fisheries Company, of Tacoma, a connec- 

 tion of an eastern house, handles the bulk of the steamer trade on 

 the American side, while the New England Fish Company, of Van- 

 couver, British Columbia, handles the bulk of the steamer trade on 

 the Canadian side. The latter company, however, is an American 

 corporation, with American-built vessels, and nearly all of its catch 

 enters this country in bond free of duty. Both companies have 

 special arrangements with the transcontinental lines by which their 

 fish, fresh in refrigerator cars, are rushed through by passenger service, 

 thus enabling the companies to place the fish on the Boston and 

 Gloucester markets in from six to seven days after it is landed on the 

 coast. 



The New England Fish Company was the first to employ steamers 

 in the fishery, beginning in 1897. At present it operates three steam- 

 ers, while the Tacoma compan}^ has four steamers employed in fishing 

 and transporting. Within the last year several steamers and power 

 boats have been fitted out at Seattle to engage in the industry. 



It was about 1895 when the southeast Alaska banks began to be 

 resorted to by Seattle schooners in the winter, it not being possible 

 to do anything on the Cape Flattery banks' at that season of the year, 

 and the British Columbia banks being closed to them. Most of the 

 vessels fished around Dixons Entrance, while others worked in 

 Chatham Strait and Frederick Sound, the latter making their head- 

 quarters in Wrangell Narrows and shipping the fish to Puget Sound 

 ports on the regular steamers. The fishing was quite desultory, how- 



