UTILIZATION OF THE ETSB WASTE OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 19 
fishing with hook and line or seines, ii is possible that they would 
desert the waters where so attacked. 
Tn past years it has been true that in the height of the fishing sea- 
when the salmon were most abundant, large numbers were thrown 
away. The reasons for this Lay in the fact that more salmon were 
caught and delivered at the canneries than could be preserved. 
With the fiVh delivered, it remained only to do what (he circumstances 
showed Was the logical thing — to discard the less valuable part of 
the excess delivery and preserve the more valuable. The error, of 
course, lay in permitting the delivery of such large quantities of 
fish. Once this error was committed the resulting waste was un- 
avoidable. Even to-day, with the increased demand for fish and 
greater facilities for communication, there occasionally occurs a 
similar waste. During the summer of 1913 the civic authorities of 
Anacortes, Wash., were called, upon to take action to protect the city 
from the nuisance resulting from the clumping of " many thousand " 
of salmon into the harbor. 1 
Such an oversupply of fish at a cannery is liable to occur at any 
time during the period of greatest abundance of fish as long as the 
present methods of securing the fish are employed. In localities 
where there are several canneries in operation it is frequently pos- 
sible to sell the surplus taken by one cannery to supply the needs of 
another. Jlut where all the canneries are pursuing the fish with 
equal success, it is evident that a superfluity for which there is no 
demand is likely to occur. 
It is most desirable that these fish be allowed to remain at liberty 
and to continue on their way to the spawning grounds. But once 
taken and allowed to die, any use whatever is preferable to throwing 
them back into the water to cause pollution and create a nuisance. 
In case of a by-products plant being in operation as an adjunct to 
or in the neighborhood of a cannery, the logical thing would be to 
render for fertilizer and oil the oversupply of salmon. A law 
which would permit the capture by the packers of more fish than 
could be used for food, if at all reasonable, would permit their use 
in this manner. 
A circumstance which would militate against this incidental sup- 
ply of raw material being of probable value to a by-products plant 
is the fact that it would be available only while the cannen 7 is being 
operated at maximum capacity and, on rare occasions, when, through 
some mishap, the operation of the cannery temporarily is suspended. 
The capacity of a by-products plant quite possibly would be such as 
to enable it to treat only the maximum output in waste of the can- 
nery or canneries, and in that case it would not be able readily to 
1 The American-Reveille, Bellingham, Wash., Sept. 2, 1913. 
