FISHERIES OF ALASKA IN 1910. 

 Products op the Alaska Herring Fisheries in 1910. 



51 



FERTILIZER AND OILS. 



The only plant operated this year for the preparation of fertilizer 

 and oil from fish was that of the Alaska Oil & Guano Co. at Killisnoo, 

 in southeast Alaska. During the fishing season the company's ves- 

 sels caught 59,000 barrels of herring, as compared with 52,000 barrels 

 of herring and 3,846 barrels of salmon in 1909. 



The Revilla Reduction Works have constructed a plant for the 

 treatment of dogfish and mud shark livers at Ketchikan, in southeast 

 Alaska. While the plant is primarily for the extraction of oil from the 

 livers, it is also hoped by the owners to be able to dry-salt the flesh 

 for shipment as food to China and Japan, and to dry the skins for 

 sale. Unfortunately the flesh so far treated has turned yellow and 

 brown, and until this fault can be corrected it will be of little value. 

 The plant was completed so late in the season that practically nothing 

 was done this year. 



THE CRAB FISHERY. 



As stated in previous reports, crabs are exceedingly abundant in 

 nearly every section of Alaska, but it is only in southeast Alaska that 

 they are put to any considerable commercial use, many being con- 

 sumed locally, while large numbers are shipped to the Puget Sound 

 markets, and a few to points in the Northwest Territory, Canada. 



The principal shipping places are Petersburg and Wrangell, and 

 the fishermen from here crab on the flats in Dry Straits, opposite Ideal 

 Cove, and at Scow Bay, in Wrangell Narrows. They use a rectangular 

 pot of wooden framework, about 40 inches long, 18 inches high, and 

 30 inches wide, with 3^-inch stretch mesh net covering. The tun- 

 nels, of which there is one at each end, are 7 inches in width and 5 

 inches in height. These pots cost about $3 each. 



The pots are set on trawls, about 25 or 30 to a trawl. Each is 

 attached to a gangion about 5 fathoms long, thus permitting the 

 raising and emptying of the pot without bringing to the surface the 

 trawl itself. The trawls are marked by buoys and held by anchors. 



