238 
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 
cohos were reported from the sound. Casual development of the coho fishery began 
in 1910, as incidental to fishing for reds and pinks rather than as an independent 
fishery, and since then catches have been reported each year, wide fluctuations occur- 
ring at irregular intervals, indicating either poor runs, or lack of fishing effort. In 
1913, 406 cohos were taken, of which 383 came from Eshamy Lagoon and the remain- 
ing 23 from Bay of Isles. This small catch is rather convincing evidence that in 1913, 
at least, no effort was made to take cohos anywhere in the sound, such catches as 
were made coming as the direct result of fishing at certain localities for reds and pinks, 
without any attempt to fish the runs of cohos in other localities where reds and pinks 
were not commercially obtainable. The real development of this fishery dates from 
1916, and it gained proportionally with the increase in the number of canneries until 
in 1918 the catch totaled 100,247. In 1921 and 1922 catches were small, due to reduced 
fishing effort, but thereafter they increased rapidly and reached a total of 258,816 in 
1927 — the highest yield of cohos on record in the sound up to that time. In this con- 
nection it is interesting to note that the western part of the sound is in general a poor 
coho district; and that in the years of largest catches, traps on the west coast of Mon- 
tague Island produced a large percentage of the total from that section. Seining in 
the bays is relatively much less productive of this species. This fact may indicate that 
cohos bound for streams in the eastern part of the sound enter through Montague 
Strait although it is possible that many are bound for Copper River and other streams 
in that region and have only entered Montague Strait en route. There is no evidence 
of depletion of the coho runs as the low production from 1921 to 1923 was certainly 
due not to scarcity of fish but rather to overproduction in the years just preceding. 
The first reported catch of chums was made in 1912 and amounted to only a few 
hundred fish. The catch in the next three years was also insignificant, but in 1916 
nearly 46,000 were taken. Thereafter, the catch was measured by hundreds of thou- 
sands (except in 1921 and 1922) reaching a total of 1,341,887 in 1918, while in four 
subsequent years it exceeded a half million fish. Roughly estimated, four-fifths of the 
entire chum catch came from the eastern part of the sound, though there was a far 
more general distribution of this species than there was of cohos. It is a fishery of 
comparatively recent exploitation, having been developed since 1916 along with the 
introduction of traps in the sound until in 1927 it ranked next to pinks in quantity of 
production. Chums were apparently fairly abundant in every year that a real effort 
has been made to catch them, and the fishery, at least through 1927, shows no sign of 
depletion. 
COPPER RIVER 
Several rivers flow into the ocean from the Pacific slope of Alaska between Point 
Whitshed at the eastern entrance of Prince William Sound and Point Martin, some 
45 miles to the eastward. They are, from west to east, Eyak, Glacier, Copper, and 
Martin Rivers, the most important one being the Copper. Together they constitute 
with the adjacent coastal waters, what is here called the Copper River district. 
(See fig. 9.) 
Copper River is the largest salmon stream of the southern coast of Alaska and with 
its many tributaries drains a large area in the south central part of Alaska where 
glaciers supply much of the water which eventually reaches the ocean through its 
channels. Due to this large quantity of glacial water, Copper River is a very muddy 
