THE FISHERIES OF ALASKA IIS 1906. 21 



fish weighing over 17 pounds, 35 cents each for all under 17 pounds, 

 and 25 cents each for white-meated kings of any weight. In the 

 vicinity of the Stikine River 60 cents each was paid for red-meated fish 

 and 10 cents each for white-meated. The white-meated kings are not 

 desired, but the packers are compelled to take them, as the fishermen 

 will not fish for the red-meated fish only. The packers in the vicinity 

 of the Taku estimate that there will be 7 white-meated kings to every 

 100 red-meated ones, while in the vicinity of Ketchikan about 25 per 

 cent of the catch is said to consist of white-meated fish. The largest 

 king handled at Ketchikan in 1905 weighed 77 pounds, while the 

 largest king handled at Juneau in 1906 weighed 47 pounds. The 

 average weight all over Southeast Alaska appears to be between 20 

 and 25 pounds. 



The method of curing was to take off the head and remove the 

 entrails; split the fish down the middle, and take out the backbone, 

 leaving the fish in two halves; scrape out the blood vessels, and put 

 the fish into ice water for about 30 minutes, and then salt it down in 

 tierces with fine (dairy) salt. Each tierce contained about 800 pounds 

 of cured fish or about 50 fish as taken from the water. 



DRY-SALTING. 



Dog salmon is the chief species treated in this manner, and nearly 

 the entire product is shipped to Japan. During the Japanese-Russian 

 war the Japanese fishermen were very much hampered by the dangers 

 and uncertainties of fishing off the island of Saghalien and the Amur 

 River section of Siberia, and there was consequently a large demand 

 for Alaska dog salmon. This demand reached its height in 1905, when 

 7,280,234 pounds of dog salmon, valued at $115,643, were prepared 

 and shipped to Japan. Three Japanese vessels visited Southeast 

 Alaska that year and bought fish from American fishermen, the vessel 

 crews curing these, while other vessels visited islands in the Aleutian 

 chain and caught and cured their own fish, trusting to the remoteness 

 of their scene of operations to escape detection. The prices realized 

 in 1905 were fairly good, the ruling price in December being about $37 

 to $38 per ton f. o. b. ship's tackle Japan. 



As the Saghalien grounds now belong to the Japanese, while they 

 are negotiating, with very good prospect of success, with the Russians 

 for fishing rights in the Amm- River section, their fishermen are now 

 enabled to supply the greater part of the home market for this class of 

 fish themselves, consequently the demand in 1906 for Alaska dog 

 salmon was very light. Another factor adverse to the sale of our fish 

 is the new tarifl^ on fish put in force by the Japanese government. 

 Under its provisions the only fish entitled to free entry are those 

 caught or taken by Japanese fishermen on board Japanese ships. All 

 other fish are subject to a duty of 2 yen per 100 kin, or $0,996 pei 132.9 

 pounds (approximately $1 per 133 pounds). 



