20 KEPOET OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 



" jigging " f° r salmon, which results in the cruel mutilation of fish 

 which afterwards escape and die, has been stopped, and prohibition 

 has been placed on the tourists' practice of catching in their hands the 

 nutritively useless but reproductively valuable spawning fish strug- 

 gling up the falls and rapids. 



The effort to prevent the waste of edible portions of salmons, the 

 choice parts of which have been pickled under former practices, has 

 been successful, the salteries now pickling the entire fish or utilizing 

 in other ways the edible parts formerly thrown away. 



The statistics relating to the operations of the government and 

 private fish hatcheries in Alaska will not be available until the return 

 of the agents from the Territory. 



The counting of the salmon passing into Wood River, which was 

 begun in the preceding year, was continued during the run of 1909. 

 The spawning fish numbered but 893,000, as compared with 2,600,000 

 in 1908, and the catch of fish in Nushagak Bay, to which Wood Eiver 

 is a tributary, was but 4,900,000, as compared with 6,400,000 in the 

 year before. It is estimated that between 6,200,000 and 7,400,000 

 fish entered the Nushagak basin, and that between 20 and 35 per cent 

 escaped to the spawning grounds, as compared with a total run of 

 between 10,100,000 and 13,600,000 fish and an escape of between 37 

 and 53 per cent in 1908. From the valuable but still insufficient 

 data so far obtained it appears that for every salmon reaching the 

 spawning grounds from two to five return several years later, and 

 that of these from one to four may be taken without impairing the 

 fishery. These are highly probable extremes, and the present rate of 

 reproductive increase is between the two. 



In the minor fisheries of Alaska cod were taken to the value of 

 $118,821 and halibut worth $195,529. There were employed in these 

 fisheries fixed capital to the value of $503,837 and 548 persons. In 

 addition there is a fleet of vessels from California and Washington 

 fishing in Alaskan waters, the data for which are not included in the 

 above. 



The Bureau is making an effort to stop the use of food fishes for 

 fertilizer and to stimulate the utilization of scraps and waste fishes ' 

 for that purpose. This is not only in the interest of economy of con- 

 sumption, but to prevent the pollution of waters through the dis- 

 charge of putrescent wastes. It therefore recommends the enactment 

 of laws prohibiting the manufacture of fertilizer from food fishes 

 and the extension of the antipollution act of March 3, 1899, in such 

 manner as to protect the fisheries of Alaska. 



Suitable vessels for the use of the salmon-inspection service are 

 urgently required, and provision should be made by law for the regu- 

 lation and limitation of the future establishment of plants for 

 utilizing salmon. 



