PRINCE WILLIAM SOUND, COPPER AND BERING RIVER SALMON STATISTICS 241 
Table 10. — Salmon caught and fishing appliances used in the Prince William Sound and Copper 
River districts, 1889 to 1908 
Year 
Cohos * 
Pinks 
Kings 
Reds 
Beach 
seines 
Gill nets 
1889 
242, 790 
411, 190 
710, 740 
792, 690 
710, 000 
507, 630 
714, 695 
371, 487 
417, 171 
527, 122 
748, 310 
781, 438 
800, 044 
814, 345 
Number 
Number 
1890 
5,491 
6, 185 
8, 674 
8,494 
10,248 
1,407 
2, 044 
1,850 
4,682 
3,462 
2 , 500 
4, 600 
1891 
1893 
72.000 
17. 000 
142, 937 
31,862 
25, 605 
1894 
1895 
1896 
308, 180 
302, 290 
375, 246 
212, 907 
50, 565 
313, 806 
375, 408 
398, 926 
1897 
5 
12 
12 
2 
2 
10 
10 
10 
10 
10 
10 
10 
1898 
1899 
1900 - 
88, 175 
1901 
1902 
1903 
2 
i Reported as cohos but probably mainly pinks. 
The number of localities in the Copper River district has been reduced to four 
by combining all catches reported from Eyak Lake and Mountain Slough with Eyak 
River fish. Glacier and Martin River catches are given exactly as reported by the 
fishery operators. The Copper River catch includes all salmon caught in Aber- 
crombie Canyon and Miles Lake, all salmon from the many sloughs of the delta, 
besides small lots reported from Big Softuk Bar, Boswell Bay, Copper River Flats, 
Cottonwood Point, Egg Island, Italian Flats, Koki n hen ik Bar, Little River, Point 
Whitshed, San Island, Snag Point, and Softuk Bar. In the period from 1904 to 
1914, when the district was occupied by a single cannery and fishing was confined 
largely to the sloughs, there was less chance of error in the allocation of catches than 
in subsequent years when fishing became more intensive and the mud flats were 
covered with staked nets. The general intermingling of all runs of salmon in the 
tidal sections of the district where much of the catch was made in later years rendered 
more definite allocation a hopeless undertaking if not an impossibility. Perhaps 
the most logical disposition would be to credit all salmon taken between Point Whit- 
shed and Point Martin to Copper River, disregarding entirely Eyak, Glacier, and 
Martin Rivers. It is possible that most of the salmon reported as coming from these 
streams were Copper River fish, for it is recognized that the spawning grounds of 
Eyak Lake are extremely limited and can accommodate at most only a few thousand 
salmon, that Glacier River is equally deficient, and that Martin River is in reality 
a tributary of the Copper. In spite of these recognized deficiencies in the data it 
has seemed best to retain such details of the catch as have been given although analysis 
of the catches in the smaller localities can not be considered well founded. 
