174 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. . 
PACIFIC COAST. 
The investigation of the fisheries of the Pacific coast of the United 
States, which was begun November 15, 1888, and has been referred to 
in a previous report of the division, was brought to a close on Septem- 
ber 23, 1889, and Mr. W. A. Wilcox, who had been conducting the can- 
vass, was ordered to other duty. In December, 1889, Mr. A. B, Alex- 
ander, fishery expert on the Fish Commission steamer Albatross, which 
was then at San Francisco, was assigned to temporary duty in this 
division and detailed to make additional inquiries on certain fisheries 
for the calendar year 1889 at times when his services on the vessel were 
not required. As aresult of Mr. Alexander’s work, the office came 
into possession of valuable statistical and descriptive information on 
the whale, cod, fur-seal, market, and other vessel fisheries of the west 
coast; the salmon-canning industry of California, Oregon, Washington, 
and Alaska, and the wholesale fish trade of San Francisco, for a later 
year than could be obtained by Mr. Wilcox. 
The present importance of the fisheries of this region, and the aug- 
mented prominence they are destined to attain as aresult of the indus- 
trial growth of the western States in other lines of business, warranted 
the very detailed investigation undertaken by the division in econnec- 
tion with the careful scientific and other researches carried on by the 
Albatross in the offshore waters. While the fisheries of the Pacifie 
coast are, aS a whole, less extensive than those prosecuted on the 
Atlantic seaboard, certain branches have precedence over all similar 
fisheries. The fur-seal and salmon fisheries and the canning industry, 
for instance, are unsurpassed in other regions, and San Francisco has 
recently become the leading center of the whaling industry, owing to 
the transfer of vessels from the Atlantic to the Pacific, occasioned by 
the relative scarcity of whales in* the former ocean. Taken in the 
aggregate, the fisheries were probably as successful as during any pre- 
vious period. ‘The number of persons ascertained to be engaged in the 
industry in the three coast States was 13,850; the vessels, boats, appa- 
ratus, etc., employed were valued at $6,498,239; and the first value of 
the products taken was $6,387,803. Of salmon, the most important 
product, 48,806,913 pounds were secured, for which the fishermen re- 
ceived $2,082,809. The salmon-canning industry, exclusive of Alaska, 
utilized 41,632,225 pounds, which were made into 622,037 cases of 
vanned fish, having a market value of $3,703,838. 
The inquiry disclosed a very marked advance in the fisheries as com- 
pared with 1889, when Prof. D. S. Jordan and Mr. Charles H. Gilbert 
canvassed the fisheries of the Pacific States in behalf of the Tenth 
Census. Mr. Wilcox’s investigation showed that the value of the 
ocean, Shore, and river fisheries of the region, viz, $6,387,803, exceeded 
by $2,111,300 the results of the fisheries in 1880. Especially worthy 
of mention is the increase in the whale and oyster fisheries, 
