COMMERCIAL FISHERIES OF THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 497 
lulu on April 26, and cruised among the islands to the westward of 
this group, returning on August 7 with 240 barrels of seal oil, 1,500 
skins, a quantity of sharks’ fins and oil, ete. 
Foreign sealers also touched at the islands occasionally, even as late 
as 1901, when a Russian and a Canadian vessel visited Waimea, on 
Kauai, to refit. 
SEA-OTTER FISHERY. 
Sea-otter skins were early traded in at Honolulu, as is shown by the 
following extract from the journal of one of her pioneer merchants:* 
1829, April 1.—* * * Sold French a lot of sea otter skins belonging to Dana & 
Temple: Primes, at $35; small, at $12; reds, at $5; tail pes., $1 each. 
Many of the otter skins were obtained by merchant and whaling 
vessels in the course of trade. At times vessels would be fitted out 
especially for the fishery, as mentioned in the following quotation 
referring to the year 1835: 
Upward of 20 sail, chiefly British and American whale ships, anchored in the port 
of Honorum [Honolulu] while we continued there. One of them was a fine brig, 
the property of an American merchant, resident at this island. She was engaged in 
the fur trade on the northwest coast of America, was commanded by Captain Ban- 
croft, an Englishman, and carried as part of her crew 23 Northwest Indians, who 
had been engaged to shoot the sea otter. The latter people are found to be tractable 
when on distant seas, although prone to treachery when on their own coast. They 
were paid by the owner of the vessel the market price of each fur skin they obtained, 
or, more commonly, to the same amount in such European commodities as they 
required, namely, blankets, knives, tobacco, and spirits. t 
In 1837 sea-otter skins to the value of $29,000 were exported from 
the islands. 
There is no further mention of the industry in any of the available 
records, and it is probable that it was given up at an early date, as the 
islands were too far from the hunting-grounds. 
SHARK FISHERY. 
During the latter half of the last century particularly, considerable 
shark fishing was done among the chain of islands to the westward of 
the main group, and these islands in time came to achieve an unenvi- 
able notoriety from the number of wrecks which occurred upon their 
shores. The first record we have of this fishery was in 1859 when the 
bark Gambca returned from a three and one-half months’ cruise 
amongst these islands with, among other things, a quantity of sharks’ 
fins and oil. In 1872 the //enrietta made a cruise among the islands 
for the same purpose. In 1886 the schooner General Seigel, while on 
a shark-fishing cruise, parted her cables and went ashore at Midway 
* Honolulu in Primitive Days. As seen by extracts from the journal of one of her pioneer mer- 
chants during the years 1826 to 1829. The Hawaiian Almanac and Annual for 1901. 
+ Narrative of a Whaling Voyage round the Globe, from the Year 1833 to 1836, ete. By Frederick 
Debell Bennett, vol. 1, p. 402. 2 vols., London, 1840. 
F. C. 1901 
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