FLUCTUATIONS IN THE SUPPLY OF HERRING 
35 
stretched measure, in the lagoon at Kootznahoo Inlet (area 12). The Reverend 
Kashevaroff, curator of the Alaska Territorial Museum, told the author in an inter- 
view, “In 1894, 1895, and 1896 (when he observed the fishery) Chatham Strait was 
always full of herring off Danger Point. The Killisnoo fishermen lived at the lagoon 
and brought about 1,200 barrels of herring daily to the factory at Killisnoo.” Capt. 
Elling Arentsen in 1924 compiled from the log books of the Killisnoo steamers a 
table giving the amounts taken (in round numbers) and the locations of the catches 
in various years from 1895 to 1915. His figures for Killisnoo lagoon are given in 
Table 8. 
Table 8. — Catches reported taken hy the Killisnoo plant in Killisnoo lagoon in various years from 
1895 to 1915 
Year 
Catch in 
barrels 
Year 
Catch in 
barrels 
Year 
Catch in 
barrels 
Year 
Catch in 
barrels 
1895— 
20,000 
20,000 
20,000 
20,000 
20,000 
1900 
20,000 
15,000 
15, 000 
15, 000 
1906 
10,000 
10,000 
10, 000 
12,000 
1912 
10, 000 
9.000 
8.000 
5,000 
1896 
1903 
1909 
1913 
1897 
1904. 
1910 
1914__ _ 
1898 
1905 
1911 
1915 ... 
1899 
These figures show a considerable decline in abundance in Kootznahoo Inlet. 
That such a decline has progressed much farther is indicated by the figures for the 
past four years in which the total catches in barrels for area 12 (which includes 
Kootznahoo Inlet) for all of the boats in southeastern Alaska were as follows: 1926, 
1,379; 1927, 1,202; 1928, 1,475; and 1929, 2,179 barrels. Area 12 would appear to 
represent a case of extreme depletion. 
The limits of the fishing grounds utilized by the Killisnoo plant up to 1911 are 
clearly defined in the following statement by Carl Spuhn, president of the company 
then operating Killisnoo (United States Senate, 1912): 
The fishing industry in Alaskan waters, whether it takes the form of the business of the salmon 
packer, the halibut fisher, or is confined to the industry as carried on by our company, must neces- 
sarily have some central point to which fish can be carried for preparation for market in any form, 
and from this central point the fishing must radiate. Necessarily, therefore, the territory covered 
by the fishermen, particularly in a business which utilizes the herring, is restricted in area. The 
territory covered by our operations includes a radius of from 40 to 50 miles north and south from 
Killisnoo, where the plant is located, and it embraces the waters surrounding Admiralty Island. 
Thus our operations extend up Chatham Strait along the west coast of Admiralty Island approxi- 
mately as far as Funter Bay, thence across Chatham Strait to Icy Strait, and down the east coast 
of Chichagof and Baranof Islands to Prince Frederick Sound, and along the easterly coast of 
Admiralty Island to Seymour Canal. The Alaskan waters in and about Ketchikan, Wrangell, 
Juneau, Skagway, and Sitka, in southeastern Alaska, are not invaded by the fishing operations of 
this company, and they are too far distant from the located plant of the company to make possible 
any fishing by us in those waters. 
As shown in a previous report (Rounsefell, 1930, Table 1, p. 237) the Killia n no 
plant took 60 per cent of its 1927 catch around Cape Ommaney (area 4) and 53 per 
cent of its 1928 catch in Lynn Canal (Stephens Passage, area 20). In 1928 they also 
took 11 per cent from Sitka (area 2). All of these areas were considered too far away 
from the plant to be profitably fished as late as 1911. 
In Seymour Canal (area 21) records are available of fishing as early as 1904. 
Quoting from Cobb (1906, p. 20): 
During the season of 1905 the Alaska Fish & Development Co., of Pleasant Bay, on Glass 
Peninsula, installed a fertilizer plant aboard a large hulk anchored in the bay, but they were unable 
