FISHERIES OF ALASKA IN 1910. 47 



In southeast Alaska the fishery has attained to considerable promi- 

 nence. Here herring are sold fresh and salted for food; but the prin- 

 cipal use is as bait in the halibut and king salmon fisheries and as fer- 

 tilizer and oil. In baiting, fresh herring are used whenever possible; 

 but when the fisherman has to hold them for a few days the herring 

 are usually dumped round into a barrel with enough salt to preserve 

 them until needed. There is also a demand from the States for the 

 larger herring for smoking purposes, and each season a few dressed 

 and rolled in salt are packed in halibut boxes holding about 500 

 pounds, and shipped. 



Several inquiries were received this year from Seattle and San Fran- 

 cisco brokers and commission men in regard to supplying salted her- 

 ring for the China trade, and it is to be hoped that some business in 

 this line will eventuate. 



Each season there are many complaints from the halibut fisher- 

 men as to the scarcity of herring and the heavy loss sustained through 

 the boats being tied up for days at a time owing to the lack of bait. 

 The question of a constant and abundant supply of bait is, in fact, the 

 most serious problem confronting the halibut fishermen. During the 

 summer months halibut fishing is carried on in a desultory manner; 

 but about the middle of September the fleet from Puget Sound arrives, 

 and this, joined with the local fleets, soon causes a tremendous demand 

 for herring, which is the only bait used in the fishery to any extent. 

 The matter is still further complicated by the erratic behavior of the 

 herring itself, which may appear in countless numbers in a certain bay 

 one year, while the next year there may not be one. 



The most feasible method for overcoming this handicap would be 

 by the establishment of small freezers at Wrangell, Scow Bay or 

 Petersburg,' Juneau, and Hoonah, where herring could be received 

 from the fishermen during the summer and early fall, when most 

 abundant, and frozen and stored away until needed in the late fall 

 and winter. The New England Fish Co., at its Ketchikan plant, 

 freezes a large quantity of herring each year, which it supplies to its 

 own steamers and to the smaller vessels which deliver their catches 

 of halibut at its plant. 



THE FERTILIZER QUESTION. 



The use of herring in the manufacture of fertilizer and oil as con- 

 flicting with its use by man directly as a food and bait fish, and indi- 

 rectly through the dependence of the valuable king salmon fishery 

 upon it as food material, gives rise to a somewhat puzzling quesfion 

 of right and administrative policy. The present fisheries law does 



