20 
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 
tons, comprising 60 per cent of the fleet in 1923, have entirely disappeared by 1929. 
Coincident with the fall of the group under 25 tons, the group from 25 to 29 tons 
rose from 26.5 per cent in 1923 to 39 per cent in 1925 and 1926, but in 1927 it com- 
menced to decline, and in 1929 comprised but 22 per cent of the total. The group 
from 30 to 34 net tons, commencing at only 14 per cent in 1923, rose to over 37 per 
cent in 1926. Since then this group has declined to slightly over 27 per cent. 
Although boats of this tonnage still comprise 27 per cent of the fleet, the individual 
boats now in use are chiefly new Diesel boats built from 1925 to 1927, and the group 
is still increasing in efficiency through the loss of older boats and the acquisition of 
new. The most remarkable feature is the sudden appearance of the group composed 
of boats of 35 net 
tons and over — large, 
fast, high-powered 
vessels, well construc- 
ted and seaworthy. 
Appearing in 1925 
and 1926 this group 
increased rapidly 
until by 1929 it in- 
cluded over 50 per 
cent of the fleet. 
(See fig. 2.) 
A summation of 
these size changes is 
shown in Table 1, 
which gives the 
number of boats each 
year, the average net 
tonnage (of those of 
Figure 3. — The net tonnage plotted against the year when built for each of the purse-seine , . , - 
vessels that has appeared in the fleet at some time during the period from 1919 to 1929, inclu- Which the tonnage is 
sive. A circle indicates a vessel powered with a^gasoline engine; a dot indicates a Diesel- known), and the Cal- 
powered vessel ,,,,,, 
culated total net ton- 
nage (derived by multiplying the average by the total number of boats). The 
percentages of boats the tonnages of which are known are also given — 71.9 per cent, 
in 1925, being the smallest sample of the fleet used in obtaining the average tonnage. 
(See fig. 5.) This shows that our sample is probably entirely adequate to represent 
the fleet, except possibly in 1922 in which the numbers are so small that the chance 
for error is greatly increased. The rapid rise from an average of 23 net tons in 1922 
to 34 net tons in 1929 is too great to be ignored. 
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iv 
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Table 1 . — Purse seine fleet of southeastern Alaska 
Year 
Num- 
ber of 
boats 
Number with 
tonnages 
known 
Average 
net 
tonnage 
Total net 
tonnage 
Year 
Num- 
ber of 
boats 
Number with 
tonnages 
known 
Average 
net 
tonnage 
Total net 
tonnage 
Actual 
Per 
cent 
Actual 
Per 
cent 
1922 
g 
6 
75.0 
23. 33 
186.64 
1926 
48 
48 
100.0 
28. 42 
1, 364. 16 
1923 
15 
14 
93.0 
22. 00 
330. 00 
1927 
70 
69 
30.65 
2, 145. 50 
1924 
17 
85.0 
25. 30 
506.00 
1928 
65 
64 
9a 5 
33.34 
2, 167. 34 
1925 
32 
23 
71.9 
27.48 
879. 36 
1929 
56 
55 
98.2 
33. 71 
1,887.76 
