PRINCE WILLIAM SOUND, COPPER AND BERING RIVER SALMON STATISTICS 189 
The earliest recorded, commercial catch of salmon in Prince William Sound was 
made in 1893. It is probable, however, that salmon were taken here commercially 
as early as 1889, when the first cannery was operated on the Copper River where 
red and king salmon were the predominant species and the only ones having at that 
time a commercial value. Due to the fact that the runs in the Copper River come 
early and are of short duration, an opportunity was afforded for the exploration of 
the sound, and it is probable that the red-salmon streams already named were dis- 
covered and fished a few weeks each season; not so much for the catches that might 
be made but to give the men who had been employed as fishermen on Copper River 
a few more weeks’ work while the pack from that district was being prepared for 
shipment. If such catches were made before 1893, they were probably packed as 
Copper River salmon and so reported. 
The first canneries to pack salmon definitely taken from Prince William Sound 
were built in 1889 at Odiak — a site between Eyak Lake and the present town of 
Cordova which was settled about 20 years later during the construction of the Copper 
River & Northwestern Railway. From that year until 1898, a period of nine years, 
it might be supposed that the sound had been completely explored and that the salmon 
packers could then make a fairly close estimate of the salmon resources of the region. 
However, Moser, 3 referring to Prince William Sound, reported in 1898 that “the 
cannery people are constantly striving to increase their packs, the steamers have 
prospected the locality very thoroughly, and it is believed that all the salmon streams 
» The Salmon and Salmon Fisheries of Alaska, by Jefferson F. Moser. Bulletin, U. S. Fish Commission, Vol. XVIII, 1898 
(1899), pp. 1-178. Washington. 
