266 
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 
This amount must be considered as waste incidental to pickling operations. The 
companies were all attempting to make as large a pack as possible of pickled herring, 
37,100,000 pounds being so utilized. 
Table 2. — Number of boats fishing in Prince William Sound weighted according to per cent of season’s 
catch taken during portion of season they fished in the sound 
Year 
Actual number of boats 
Number 
of boats 
weighted by 
per cent of 
total average 
seasonal catch 
taken during 
period each 
boat fished 
in Prince 
William 
Sound i 
Fishing only 
in Prince 
William 
Sound 
Fishing in 
Prince Wil- 
liam Sound 
until opening 
of season 
at Kodiak - 
Afognak 
district 
Fishing in 
Prince Wil- 
liam Sound 
until opening 
of season 
at Kodiak - 
Afognak dis- 
trict and re- 
turning about 
Sept. 3 
Fishing in 
Prince Wil- 
liam Sound 
until leaving 
for Cook 
Inlet about 
Aug. 4 
Fishing in 
Prince Wil- 
liam Sound 
until leaving 
for Dutch 
Harbor about 
Aug. 4 
Fishing in 
Prince Wil- 
liam Sound 
until leaving 
for Dutch 
Harbor about 
Aug. 4 
and return- 
ing about 
Sept. 12 
1918 ___ 
10 
10 
1919 
7 
7 
1920 
8 
8 
1921 
9 
9 
1922 J 
18 
18 
1923 . - 
20 
20 
1924 
13 
4 
7 
18. 29 
1925 
12 
6 
2 
6 
13! 20 
1926 
10 
8 
1 
2 
10.48 
1927 
7 
7 
7 
12. 31 
1928 
6 
15 
2 
1 
2 
12. 59 
1929 
10 
7. 23 
1930 
8 
5.78 
i Per cent taken during each part of the season was computed from the table of the average catch per boat per 10-day period. 
A considerable quantity of the large 1922 pack still remained on the market in 
1923. As a consequence, less effort was made to pickle herring, the amount so used 
decreasing from 37,100,000 pounds in 1922 to 19,700,000 pounds in 1923. The 
decline in the amount pickled may be ascribed partially to scarcity of large pickling 
fish during the late summer, as by this time a demand for 1923 fish had become 
apparent and the packers made belated efforts to obtain a pack. A small reduction 
plant was installed in 1923 at Port Benny, increasing the total capacity of all of the 
reduction units from 6 to 8 tons of raw fish per hour. Owing also to less interest in 
pickling, and to complete recovery of oil and meal prices from the 1921 slump, the 
poundage used for reduction increased from 6,800,000 pounds in 1922 to 13,900,000 
pounds in 1923. 
Since 1924 the development of the Prince William Sound herring fishery has 
been closely linked with that of the Kodiak- Afognak and Cook Inlet districts. In 
1922 the three largest operators in Prince William Sound sought for pickling herring 
farther to the westward. The W. J. Imlach Packing Co. established a saltery in 
the town of Uzinki, near Kodiak. The San Juan Fishing & Packing Co. located a 
saltery in Uganik Bay on the Shelikof Strait side of Kodiak Island. The Franklin 
Packing Co. salted herring aboard the schooner Henry Wilson, and built a saltery 
ashore at Port McKinley in Izhut Bay, Afognak Island. These ventures were not 
very successful in 1922. In 1923, W. J. Imlach discovered herring in large quantities 
in Red Fox Bay on Afognak Island, and the Fidalgo Island Packing Co. at Port 
Graham met with success in using purse seines in Cook Inlet during the summer 
months, while formerly all of the fine, large Cook Inlet fish had been taken with gill 
nets late in the fall when the fish were not sufficiently fat to be suitable for the Scotch 
cure. 
