FISHERIES OF THE PACIFIC COAST. 7 
Among the first may be mentioned the fur-seal and salmon industries, 
which are unequaled elsewhere. The whale fishery has attained impor- 
tant proportions, and San Francisco may now fairly be considered the 
leading center of the whaling industry. The canning of sardines on 
an extensive scale, the preparation of caviare, the establishment of a 
mackerel fishery, an improvement in the cod fishery as the result of 
demand in South American markets, and an increase in the fresh- 
salmon trade, are important probabilities which may be fully realized 
within a comparatively short time if the proper effort is made to profit 
by existing conditions and to utilize available resources. 
There has been a gratifying increase in the fisheries of the Pacific, 
taken as a whole, since the census of them was obtained in 1879-80, 
and there is reason for anticipating future advancement in certain di- 
rections, though cause exists for serious apprehension of decline in the 
fur-seal fishery, and possibly in one or two other branches, if present 
methods continue. 
In illustration of the important position held by the west coast in 
contributing to the world’s food supply, the appended tables, relating 
to the salmon-canning industry, may with propriety be introduced here. 
For purposes of comparison, and that the entire industry may be placed 
before the reader, the results of the business in Alaska and British 
Columbia are added to those of the Pacific States. 
An outline of the salmon canning in 1889 is given in the following 
table, from which it appears that of 122 canneries in operation that 
year, 98 were in United States territory and 24 on British soil, and of 
the former 36 were in Alaska. Of the total pack, Alaska produced 
the largest part ; and, although in the number of canneries that Terri- 
tory exceeded Oregon by only one establishment, the output was more 
than double that of the State named, a fact due partly to the larger 
capacity of the Alaskan canneries, but chiefly to the greater produc- 
tiveness of the Alaskan rivers. 
Abstract of the salmon-canning industry of the Pacific coast of North America in 1889. 
No. of 
No. of cases 
v alue at 
Locality. 
can- 
of salmon 
average m ar- 
neries. 
canned. 
ket price. 
Alaska 
36 
675, 000 
$3, 375, 000 
British Columbia 
24 
414, 400 
2, 072, 000 
Washington 
18 
203, 600 
1,201, 240 
Oregon 
35 
333, 113 
1, 965, 367 
California 
9 
75, 347 
452, 0S2 
Total 
122 
1, 701, 460 
9, 065, 689 
The pack of the west coast during the fourteen years ending 1889, 
as shown by the following table, amounted to 12,493,086 cases, with an 
estimated value of about $75,000,000. The weight of the salmon con- 
sumed in the preparation of this enormous pack was over 876,000,000 
pounds, equivalent in point of weight to 1,000,000 head of cattle, and 
greatly exceeding the latter in economic importance and food value. 
