16 COMMERCIAL FISHERIES OF ALASKA IN 1905. 



ever, until 1899, when the Icy Strait Packing Company built a salmon 

 cannery and a wharf at Petersburg, near the upper end of Wrangell 

 Narrows, and arranged with the steamship companies to make regular 

 calls for freight. From that time on the business rapidly concen- 

 trated at Petersburg, until now nearly all of the vessels make it their 

 headquarters. 



Since then a great development of the Alaskan halibut fisheries has 

 occurred. In addition to the Seattle fleet, which comes up each winter 

 to remain during the season, a few Alaskan sail and power vessels 

 have entered the fishery. A considerable part of the business, how- 

 ever, is conducted on entirely different lines. A company or indi- 

 vidual builds its plant in some place convenient to the fisheries and 

 engages crews to go out in dories from day to day. Some have one 

 central station and a number of subsidiary stations and employ a 

 steamer to carry supplies from the former to the latter and bring back 

 the fish caught. The principal halibut stations are Tee Harbor, Taku 

 Harbor, Pleasant Bay, Wrangell Narrows, Ketchikan, Kake, Hoonah 

 Village, Juneau, Fanshaw, Windom, and Farragut bays. At Tee 

 Harbor and Taku Harbor large cold-storage plants are in operation in 

 which the fish are frozen for shipment. 



In addition to the wharf at Petersburg there were located in 

 Wrangell Narrows in 1905 three large scows, each capable of taking 

 care of from 200 to 400 boxes of halibut at a time. The schooners 

 find it much easier to come alongside and discharge on these scows 

 than on the wharf, while the steamer has very little difficulty in trans- 

 ferring the boxes from the scow to its hold. The scows are resorted to 

 almost exclusively by the schooners and other sailing vessels from 

 Seattle. Most of the steamers and power boats that fish in Alaskan 

 waters in winter return to their home port to unload as soon as a fare 

 has been secured. They usually make about two trips a month to 

 the banks. 



FISHING GROUNDS. 



In the Pacific the halibut ranges from Bering Sea on the north, as 

 far as present knowledge extends, to San Francisco and the Farallones 

 on the south. According to the observations of Dr. T. H. Bean, the 

 center of abundance is in the Gulf of Alaska, particularly off Kadiak 

 and the Shumagin islands. Outside of Alaska the principal bank near 

 American territory is found off Cape Flattery, in the mouth of the 

 Straits of Fuca, in the state of Washington. Practically the entire 

 catch by American vessels during the summer is made on this bank. 

 In the winter months the supply comes entirely from scattering banks 

 in southeastern Alaska, or from banks on the British Columbia coast 

 outside the three-mile limit. 



