April 1951 



CCMMERCIAL FISHERIES REVIEW 



13 



FIGURE 4 - THE OTTER TRAWL BEING HAULED IN AT THE STERN OF 



THE JOHN N. COBB. 



A total of 19 drags 

 were made along the east 

 coast of Prince of Wales 

 Island and were usually 

 of short duration due 

 to the lack of suitable 

 trawling bottom. 



Several drags with 

 the dredge in Tolstoi 

 Bay produced only a few 

 pounds of pink shrimp 

 (Pandalus borealis ) and 

 side-stripe shrimp 

 ( Pandalopsis dispar ) . 

 Kasaan Bay also pro- 

 duced small catches of 

 the pink variety, but 

 the shrimp were of 

 small size and no large 

 concentration was lo- 

 cated. A showing of good-sized side-stripe shrimp was found in Skowl Arm. Explo- 

 ration of Cholmondely Sound revealed no suitable trawling ground. Deep-water drags 

 (220 fathoms) were made in Clarence Strait between Ratz Bay and Luck Point, but 

 yielded only insignificant quantities of large side-stripe shrimp. 



Eight areas were investigated on the west side of Beiim Canal, Of these. Spa- 

 cious Bay, Yes Bay, Naha Bay, Clover Pass, and Neets Bay possess bottoa conditions 

 which make dragging operations difficult. With the exception of Yes Bay, no grounds 

 suitable for dragging were located. 



Hassler Pass yielded the best showing of shrimp in this region, with otter 

 trawl drags producing up to 61 pounds of shrimp (mostly side stripe and spot) per 

 hour,^ However, the available dragging area is limited. Shrimp traps set in 

 Gedney Pass yielded as high as 5 pounds of large spot shrimp per trap, with best 

 catches made in depths from 50 to 75 fathoms. Local knowledge and further explo- 

 ration in this region might produce shrimp in quantities large enough to warrant 

 a small-scale commercial trap fishery. 



Otter trawl drags in depths of 40 to 80 fathoms in the Claude Point region of 

 upper Behm Canal produced as high as 180 pounds of side-stripe and pink shrimp per 

 hour. The bottom conditions for most of this area are excellent for trawling. 

 However, the otter trawl was badly torn up on a snag about mid-channel between Point 

 Lees and Claude Point, Few shrimp were caught in Baily Bay, Bell Arm, and Anchor 

 Pass, Drags with the dredge in Burroughs Bay produced fair showings of s-ide-strlpe 

 and pink shrimp, but the "washboard" characteristic of the bottom resulted in the 

 fouling and mudding of the net. 



The east arm of Behm Canal was explored with little success, th'e dragging 

 grounds being limited to small portions of Walker Cove and Smeaton Bay. Each of 

 these areas" produced fair catches of shrimp, but in such a restricted area that 

 sustained commercial trawling would seem impracticable, 



2/AS ALL WERE NOT ONE-HOUR DRAGS, THE SHRIMP CATCH FOR DRAGS OF LESS THAN ONE HOUR WAS CON- 

 VERTED ON THE BASIS OF CATCH PER ONE-HOUR DRAG. 



