SOUTHEASTERN ALASKA SALMON STATISTICS 
439 
allocating gear whenever the records were not clear. In determining the number of 
seines in operation at least one seine was counted for each locality fished by an 
operator regardless of the number reported by him, and, if the catch was large in a 
given locality, the number of seines was increased correspondingly on the basis of an 
average catch of approximately 20,000 fish per seine. For example, if a company 
reported using 5 seines and took salmon from 10 localities, it was assumed that the 
equivalent of 10 seines had been used, the object being to show the number of seines 
required to make the stated catches if all the localities from which salmon were taken 
had been fished simultaneously by the fishermen resorting thereto. This procedure 
was not necessary in respect to traps, as they are fixed appliances. So-called 
“dummy” traps were not counted. The number of gill nets is believed to agree with 
the number reported by the operators, which is admittedly incomplete, as no record 
was available showing the number of nets used by independent fishermen operating 
their own gear. Likewise no attempt was made to show the number of lines used by 
trailers, as this class of fishermen consistently failed to submit reports covering their 
operations. 
If the figures presented in this report are compared with those previously pub- 
lished either by the Bureau of Fisheries or by other agencies it will be found that they 
seldom agree exactly and are sometimes at rather wide variance. Considerable time 
has been spent in an attempt to reconcile these data with, at least, those previously 
reported by the Bureau of Fisheries, but without conspicuous success. The causes of 
these differences are many; but the chief one is the fact that in all such compilations, 
particularly as regards the older records, estimations and arbitrary allocations have 
been necessary and these have naturally varied even when made by the same person 
on the same data but at different times several years apart. Some of the earlier 
figures published in the administrative reports of the Alaska Division 5 contained 
estimates based on customhouse records which have not been considered in these 
more recent tabulations. Various situations arise in which personal judgment must 
be used in determining how the data are to be handled — as, for example, in cases in 
which packers failed to indicate whether the fish they sold to other operators were 
included or excluded from the reported catch, and a corresponding failure on the part 
of the purchasers. Unfortunately the basis of such judgments were never made a 
part of the records. In a comparatively few cases the discrepancies have been traced 
to simple errors, typographical and other. There seems to be no good reason for 
assuming that the previously published data are any more reliable than those con- 
tained in the present compilation — in fact, in some cases additional data have come 
in since the earlier tabulations which appear to make the present data the more reliable. 
All in all it seems probable that these and the previous records can never be made to agree 
other than by arbitrarily changing the present figures to correspond with the earlier 
ones; and in view of all the circumstances this seems unwarranted and unnecessary, 
and in no way likely to improve our conception of the general situation in the salmon 
fishery of southeastern Alaska. 
s These reports comprise an unbroken series, continuing the reports of the agents of the Treasury Department mentioned in 
footnote 4 and extending from 1905 to the present time. All have appeared as appendixes to the reports of the IT.S. Commissioner 
of Fisheries. The titles and authors were as follows: (1) The Commercial Fisheries of Alaska in 1905, by John N. Cobb. (2) The 
Fisheries of Alaska in 1906, by John N. Cobb (accompanied by a report on inspection of the Salmon Fisheries by H. M. Kutchin). 
(3 to 6) Fisheries of Alaska in 1907, 1908, 1909, and 1910, by M. C. Marsh and John N. Cobb. (7 and 8) Fisheries and Fur Industries 
of Alaska for 1911 and 1912, by B. W. Evermann. (9) Alaska Fishery and Fur-Seal Industries in 1913, by B. W. Evermann. (10 to 
13) Alaska Fishery and Fur-Seal Industries in 1914, 1915, 1916, and 1917, by Ward T. Bower and Henry D. Aller. (14 to 23) Alaska 
Fishery and Fur-Seal Industries in 1918, 1919, 1920, 1921, 1922, 1923, 1924, 1925, 1926, and 1927, by Ward T. Bower. 
