THE FISHERIES OF ALASKA IN 1906. 55 



At the present time the hahbut fishermen are dependent upon 

 herring for bait. In the summer and early fall fishing for halibut is 

 carried on in a desultory manner, but in the late fall and winter a 

 large fleet of local and Puget Sound vessels frequents the Southeast 

 Alaska banks, creating a very heavy demand for herring bait, which, 

 for the past two seasons, the captains complain, has been very difficult 

 to obtain in regular and sufficient supply to operate the vessels 

 without vexatious and costly delays. This lack of bait may be due, 

 however, as much to the erratic habits of the herring (they may 

 appear in countless numbers in a certain bay one year, while the next 

 year there may be not one) as to a general decrease in its abundance. 

 Heretofore the business of supplying bait to the halibut fleet has been 

 conducted in a very slipshod manner, and if there are found improved 

 methods of catching the herring when abundant and preserving them 

 until needed, it is probable that the difficulties of the halibut fisher- 

 men will be overcome. 



There is, moreover, another phase of the question to consider. 

 When the company established its plant at Killisnoo in 1882 practi- 

 cally no use had been made of the immense numbers of herring in these 

 waters, and everybody welcomed the advent of the new industrj^. At 

 present the establishment gives employment to 60 persons, half of 

 them Indians, the little settlement of Killisnoo being quite largely 

 dependent upon the work and wages derived from the company. The 

 plant, which is worth S50,000, is generally operated from June to 

 October, and in this time disburses in wages alone about $50,000. As 

 the local objections to the use of herring for fertilizer have developed 

 only within the last three years, it would seem unfair to forbid the 

 the plant to use herrmg now unless a substitute can be found. A 

 substitute, however, is possibly at hand. 



In 1906 Alaska furnished 107,643,061 pounds of prepared salmon, 

 and this output, owing to the loss in dressing, which was about 80 per 

 cent, represented a gross quantity of 153,775,802 pounds of fish. Of 

 the 30 per cent waste, which amounted to 46,132,741 pounds, every 

 pound was dumped overboard to ])ollute the waters and air in the 

 vicinity of the cannery or saltery. 



The Pacific Coast and Norway Packing Company has installed a 

 small plant in its Tonka cannery, and as soon as this is put in working 

 order expects to handle all of the waste from the canning operations. 

 A fertilizer plant at Ladner, British Columbia, on the Fraser River, 

 handles all of the salmon offal and refuse it can secure. The oil 

 extracted is said to meet with a good demand from tanners, while 

 there is an unlimited demand for the fertilizer. The ofFal is collected 

 in specially constructed scows. 



There does not appear to be any valid reason why each caimery 

 should not turn this waste into fertilizer and oil. ^^Tiile the money 



