April 1951 COMMERCIAL FiaiERIBS REVIEW I5 



Drags in Carroll Inlet captured English and flathead sole, eel-blennies, liparids 

 ( Liparidae ) . and small nvmbers of rockf ish f Scorpaenldae ) . 



RESULTS OF FALL OPERATIONS 



Bie general plan of the second of a oonteisplated series of shellfish surveys in 

 certain southeastern Alaskan waters was to explore the following areas: Tenakes In- 

 let, Hood Bay, Peril Strait, Salisbury Sound, waters in the vicinity of Sitka, and 

 the open waters off Kruzof Island, 



A meeting was held at the Fishery Products Laboratory in Ketchikan to discuss 

 the present shellfish survey operation; and suggestions, criticisms, and ideas for 

 future explorations in Alaska by all persons present were invited. This meeting was 

 attended by the staff of the Ketchikan Fishery Products Laboratory, boat owners, 

 fishermen, cannery owners, personnel of the John N. Cobb , representatives of the 

 Alaska Native Service, and the Alaska Territorial Department of Fisheries. 



T3iPES OF GEAR ; Fishing operations were carried on from November 4 to 12 in 

 Tenakee Inlet and Hood Bay, and from November 12 to December 4 in Peril Strait, 

 Salisbury Sound, and the inshore and offshore waters near Sitka. 



Various types of gear used during this survey included an otter trawl, beam 

 trawl, scallop dredge ,3/ crab pots, and shrimp traps. Uie otter trawl usdd was 

 the same as the small West Coast box- type trawl used on the spring trip and des- 

 cribed in the first part of this report. 



The beam trawl used in this survey was a modified version of the standard typo 

 used in the Wrangell-Petersburg shrimp fishery. The beam used was a 20-foot, 6- 

 by 6-inoh fir plank to which the "D" frames and cross braces were attached.!/ After 

 breaking 2 of these beams, it was found that spruce or hemlock poles, approximately 

 8-inches in diameter, out down to 6-inche3 at each end to allow attachment of the 

 "D" frames, were better suited for withstanding the roiigh bottom conditions often 

 encountered during dragging operations than tiie milled fir planks. The net, attached 

 to the sweep rope and the beam was made up of l^inch stretched-meah cotton webbing, 

 150-meshes deep. This modified beam trawl was approximately one-half the size of 

 the average beam trawl used in the Wrangell-Petersburg shrimp fishery, and unless 

 the shrimp were concentrated in a very arUall area, the catches for this survey would 

 likely be increased accordingly with a beam trawl of comoBrcial size. 



OCEANOGRAPHIC £Q,UIPt<ENT ; Water samples and subsurface temperatures were taken 

 with the same equipment described in the first part of this report; namely, the 

 Nansen-Khudsen-type reversing bottle, reversing thermometers, and bathythermographs. 

 Bottom samples were collected with a snapper-tyTpe sampler. Subsurface temperatures 

 were taken from each station, and shrimp were found in temperatures ranging from 

 3.9° C. (39.02° F.) to 8.1° C, (46.58° F.). 



USE OF GEAR ; Crab pots and shrimp traps were usually set soon after arrival 

 at each new location. The crab pots were usually set in shallow water (20 fathoms 

 or less) and the shrimp traps in deeper water (5O-IOO fathoms). A total of 43 in- 

 dividual crab pots and IO3 individual shrimp trap sets were made. 



A total of 80 drags were made with the beam trawl, the time on the bottom vary- 

 in g from 7 to 60 minutes. Drags o f 30 minutes or 60 minutes were attempted but 



4/ GEAR USED IN THE SEA SCALLOP FISHERY," BY WILLIAM F. ROYCE, COMMERCIAL F I SHER I E3 REVIEW y 

 DECEMBER 1946, PP. 7-11, REPRINTED A3 FISHERY LEAFLET NO. 225 (APRIL 1947). 



5/"cOMMERClAL POSSIBILITIES OF SHRIMP RESOURCES IN CERTAIN SOUTHEASTERN ALASKAN AREAS, "^ FISH - 

 ERY MARKET NEWS SUPPLEMENT ^ JULY 1945, PP. 5-6. 



