UTILIZATION OF THE FISH WASTE OE THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 27 
in this manner prohibitive. This method of disposal involves se- 
rious expense both in the construction and maintenance of scows and 
special loading devices and in the actual expense of towage, in addi- 
tion to which is the inconvenience of applying the cannery tugs 
to such work during the height of the fishing season. 
AMOUNT OF WASTE UTILIZED IN THE VARIOUS CENTERS. 
COLUMBIA RIVER. 
Of the 4,000 tons of cannery waste produced in the canneries of 
the Columbia River in 1913, only 800 tons were utilized for the man- 
ufacture of fertilizer and oil, leaving a balance of 3,200 tons which 
was thrown away. This amount was rendered in one fertilizer and 
oil plant situated near Astoria, Oreg. The raw materials for this 
plant were secured exclusively from the canneries of Astoria, a max- 
imum haul of 7 miles. Its output in finished products during the sea- 
son of 1913 was about 80 tons of dry fish scrap and 20,000 gallons 
of oil. 
PUGET SOUND. 
During the season of 1913 approximately 15,500 tons of raw can- 
nery waste were treated in the fish-rendering plants of Puget Sound, 
with the production of 1,550 tons of dry scrap and 273,000 gallons 
of oil. 1 Four plants were in regular operation, one being situated 
at Seattle, two at Anacortes, and one on Lummi Island, opposite Bel- 
lingham. A fifth plant, of large capacity, situated on Eliza Island, 
near Bellingham, was undergoing its initial trial during the summer, 
but marketed no output. Of these plants, the four situated near the 
Bellingham- Anacortes center of the canning industry naturally ob- 
tained the bulk of their raw materials from the canneries of the 
immediate neighborhood. 
ALASKA. 
At present there is but one rendering plant operating on salmon 
waste in the entire territory. This is strictly a by-products plant 
as an adjunct to a cannery, and is designed for a capacity lim- 
ited to the maximum output in waste of the canner}^ of which it 
forms a part. The equipment was installed just prior to the fish- 
ing season of 1913. Preliminary runs showed that the capacity of 
the drier was insufficient to dry the output of the digesters or to 
permit the plant to run at an economical rate. For that reason it 
was not operated throughout the season. It was operated long 
enough, however, to show that the process employed yielded a good 
quality of oil and dry scrap of entirely satisfactory composition and 
appearance. 2 
1 Pacific Fisherman, 12, No. 1 (Special), 1914. 
- The analysis of this product is reported in Table VIII, on p. 33. 
