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BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 
HISTORY OF THE FISHERY 
DEVELOPMENT OF VARIOUS PHASES OF THE INDUSTRY 
The first commercial use to which herring were put in Alaska was the manu- 
facture of oil and fertilizer. A plant for this purpose was established on the site of 
an old whaling station at Killisnoo on upper Chatham Strait in 1882. This was the 
only herring reduction plant in Alaska until 1919, in which year there were 3 on 
Chatham Strait. In 1920 there were 7 on Chatham Strait and 2 in Prince William 
Sound. In 1921, due to the low price of herring oil, only 3 of the 9 reduction plants 
operated — 2 in southeastern Alaska and 1 in Prince William Sound. By 1923 the 
price of herring oil had risen to such an extent that the industry boomed until, in 
1927, there were 25 herring reduction plants in the Territory — 18 large plants in 
southeastern Alaska and 7 smaller plants in Prince William Sound. Over 100,000,000 
Figure 4.-— The total catch of raw herring in central and southeastern Alaska from 1910 to 1928, inclusive 
pounds of raw herring have thus been utilized annually since 1925, the peak being 
reached with 150,000,000 pounds in 1926. 
Although a few barrels of herring were salted in various localities previous to 
1900, the pickling industry may be said to have commenced about that time at 
Petersburg. Instead of building shore plants the fishermen packed on scows, which 
they towed about from place to place with their power boats, extending their opera- 
tions as far as Chatham Strait by 1916. (Fig. 5.) During these years the herring 
were practically all packed by the Norwegian method, in which the herring are 
heavily salted, poorly gutted, and not carefully graded into sizes. For these reasons, 
and because of careless packing, the market remained very restricted. In 1917 the 
United States Bureau of Fisheries introduced into Alaska the Scotch method of 
curing herring, in which the herring are carefully graded into sizes, properly gutted, 
salted lightly, and neatly packed into barrels. 
The attractive pack and war prices stimulated the industry, resulting in the 
building of several large salteries in Chatham Strait and in Prince William Sound 
in 1918. (Fig. 6.) Over 100,000 barrels of herring were salted in Chatham Strait, 
but partially on account of the war ending, and partially on account of the careless 
