ALASKA FISHERIES AND PUR INDUSTRIES, 1911. 



61 



If this fish meal proves to be a valuable stock food as well as fer- 

 tilizer, it may become of value in Alaska to the agricultural resources 

 of the territory. 



Aside from the fact that the herring fisheries of Alaska offer in 

 themselves a present and future supply of food fish, they are also 

 important in other ways. Herring, as is well known, is the only 

 uniformly successful bait that has been found for halibut, and without 

 a good supply for this purpose the great halibut industry, which at 

 present is growing very rapidly, would soon dwindle to almost 

 nothing. Herring also has been found to be the most successfid bait 

 in trolling for king salmon, an industry that at present is giving sup- 

 port to hundreds of fishermen and others in southeast Alaska. The 

 bait supply, however, is not the only important feature, for there is 

 the additional and very important fact that it is principally the pres- 

 ence of big schools of herring that serves to attract the king and coho 

 salmon into the protected waters of southeast Alaska before they are 

 ready to spawn, and makes it possible for the salmon trollers to catch 

 king and coho salmon in almost every month in the year. 



STATISTICS. 



Persons engaged. — There were 265 persons employed this year, a gain 

 of 78 over 1910. A notable feature of the table is the increase in the 

 number of Japanese fishermen and shoresmen employed. In 1910 

 there were 4 Japanese fishermen and 6 shoresmen employed, while 

 this year there were 26 Japanese fishermen and 7 shoresmen engaged 



Persons Engaged in the Alaska Herring Fisheries in 1911. 



Investments. — The total investment this year amounted to $295,220, 

 a gam of 190,185 over 1910. 



