216 
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 
taken in other parts of Culross Passage. As the catches were made with seines, 
the salmon doubtless schooled at the mouth of the bay. 
McClure Bay . — In the four years from 1917 to 1920 a few pinks and chums, 
with occasional cohos, kings, and reds, were reported from this bay. Production 
then ceased until 1925, when chums and pinks were again taken. Inasmuch as no 
salmon were reported from this bay in 1926, the best year in the history of the sound 
fisheries, or in 1927, also a good year, it would now seem that the locality has been 
abandoned or that fish taken here are reported with other catches. 
Mink Harbor .- — Mink Harbor is not indicated by name on Coast and Geodetic 
Survey Chart No. 8550, but is a local name applied to a small bay located on the 
west side of Port Nellie Juan, almost directly opposite the mouth of McClure Bay. 
According to the available data, fishing began here in 1918 with the catch of a few 
thousand chums and pinks. Nothing more was done until 1924, but, beginning then 
and continuing through 1927, catches were large and show progressive increases for 
the cycles of both even and odd years. In the four years for which there are con- 
tinuous records the fishery has attained a position of real importance among the 
localities of the Port Wells district. It is a seine fishery and for that reason the 
correctness of the data may be questioned, as fishermen are disinclined to reveal the 
source of good catches. However, in the absence of proof to the contrary, the figures 
must be accepted as essentially correct. The record contains no evidence of 
depletion. 
Port Nellie Juan . — Among the localities of the western part of the sound Port 
Nellie Juan comes next in size to Port Wells, and, like most other localities in that 
district, it is mainly a producer of pink and chum salmon. Catches were reported 
in two 4-year periods, from 1917 to 1920, inclusive, and from 1924 to 1927. The 
break in fishing in the three years from 1921 to 1923, likewise noted in the records 
for several other localities in this district, may mean that salmon taken in those 
years were reported only as coming from the sound rather than that there was no 
fishing at all. If catches were made, definite allocation was omitted and therefore 
analysis of data is correspondingly more difficult. Assuming the statistics to be 
correct, the catch of pinks in the even years increased from 165,840 in 1918 to 534,546 
in 1924. In 1926 it dropped to 213,737, showing, in a year of great abundance 
elsewhere in the sound, a decided decrease in the catch as compared with that of the 
second preceding year without a noticeable change in the intensity of fishing. The 
catch in the odd years was much smaller, and the decline from 1925 to 1927 was 
even more marked than that from 1924 to 1926. No reason can be given for these 
changes, which may be due to faulty data or to shifts in the fishery of which there is 
no record. The catch of chums also fluctuated widely, finally dropping from 29,476 
in 1925 to 1,460 and 1,350 in 1926 and 1927, respectively. This decline, if genuine, 
was probably due to reduced fishing effort for chums infavor of greater activity for pinks 
in this and other localities. A few hundred cohos and reds were taken irregularly, 
but these species are of negligible importance. 
Pigot Bay . — This bay is a small arm on the west side of Port Wells just north of 
Point Pigot. Records show, except in 1919 when the catch was only 1,143, that it 
has produced annually from 22,000 to 54,000 pink salmon, exclusive of three seasons 
in which fishing was apparently suspended. Runs of chums were much smaller, and 
catches of cohos, kings, and reds were negligible. The pink-salmon fishery appears 
to be in no immediate danger of depletion, while the others have little economic 
importance. 
