SOUTHEASTERN ALASKA SALMON STATISTICS 
519 
river carries a large quantity of silt which discolors the water of the inlet for several 
miles, thus making possible the only important gill-net fishery in the district. 
Presumably fishing began at the Taku about 1885 soon after the opening of 
canneries on Chilkat Inlet and for many years this locality made substantial contri- 
butions to the packs of the canneries at the head of Lynn Canal, yet in all those years 
no segregation of catches was made to show the number of salmon taken from Taku 
Inlet. Moser (1899, p. 126) says, in reporting on the pack of king salmon by the 
Chilkat canneries, “all that are packed at Pyramid Harbor are taken in the Taku, 
except a few stragglers that appear around the Chilkat very early in the season, 
which can hardly be called a run.” 
Taku River produces all species of salmon. The catches have been surprisingly 
uniform by species and from year to year. The largest catch of reds was 72,353 in 
1905; of kings, 45,017 in 1911; pinks, 50,117 in 1919; chums, 66,157 in 1919; and 
cohos, 58,182 in 1916. Such even production, not exceeding 73,000 of any species 
in 24 years, has no parallel in any other locality. This consistently steady production 
is illustrated clearly in figure 26. After 1923 the catch of all species was affected 
by regulations, which in 1924 stopped fishing from August 11 to 31 and those in subse- 
quent years which prohibited fishing from August 6 to September 5 and from October 
15 to the end of the year, except gill netting from September 5 to October 15. Fishing 
was prohibited within 1 mile of the river after June 1924. Although it is improbable 
that the catch of kings was reduced materially by these regulations, as the run comes 
early, it is likely that the catch of all other species was considerably affected by these 
restrictions. There would be no purpose in such regulations if the catch were not 
reduced. 
In assembling the data for Taku Inlet, it was necessary to divide the catches 
reported from Taku Inlet and Icy Strait in 1910, from Taku Inlet and Port 
Snettisham in 1919, from Taku and Chilkoot Rivers in 1922, and the unallocated 
catches of southeastern Alaska in 1906 and 1911. All salmon reported from Taku 
River from 1913 to 1919 were also included as Taku Inlet fish. 
The trend of the catch of cohos maintains an even level almost from the develop- 
ment of the fishery to the end of the period herein treated, and there appears to be 
no marked change in conditions as a result of the restrictions that were applied in 1924 
and in subsequent years. The fishing season, as limited in 1924, apparently caused 
a slight falling off in catch in that year but the larger catches in 1925 and 1927 again 
gave the curve a perceptible slope upward. 
The catch of chums fluctuated more than that of any other species, and shows a 
rising trend up to 1918; thereafter it declined in a few years to the lowest point it had 
reached since 1908. 
The pink-salmon fishery of Taku Inlet is relatively unimportant. Apparently 
little effort was made to take this species before 1911. Even in 1918, when most 
all other localities were highly productive, no pinks were reported from the inlet. 
The trend of this fishery reached its highest point in 1919, only to move downward 
with but one interruption to the low level of 1924. Although the better catches in 
1926 and 1927 caused the trend to move upward, there is no indication that the 
catch will exceed greatly the best catches of the past, which occurred always in odd 
years. 
The trend of the king-salmon catch has maintained a virtually constant level 
for more than 12 years. Except for the surprisingly large catch of 1911, the pro- 
