SOUTHEASTERN ALASKA SALMON STATISTICS 
551 
1,468 reds being taken in 1926 and 455 in 1927. It is by no means certain, however, 
that this decline was due to the depletion of the run. The closed season of 20 days 
in August and September 1924 and in subsequent years, could have had no effect on 
the catches as the run of reds was practically over before the middle of August, but 
the regulation of 1925 closing the bay to all commercial fishing east of a line at 133° 
32' 30" west longitude, approximately 2 miles from the stream, is probably responsible 
for the declining catches. It would also seem that the coho fishery was affected in 
exactly the same way as the catch dropped from 8,108 in 1924, thelargest ever known 
in Shipley Bay, to 191 in 1925 and 35 in 1927. The pink and chum fisheries were but 
slightly affected by the closing of the head of the bay as the principal stream for these 
species is outside the closed area. The catch may have been affected, however, by the 
seasonal closing of 20 days before the end of the runs, although the catch of chums in 
1926 had been exceeded but once in 21 years and that of pinks but three times in 22 
years. In the light of the data here considered, no depletion of the Shipley Bay 
fisheries can be assumed. 
As to the other localities referred to, Shakan and Calder Bays together show a 
good annual yield of pink and chum salmon which has been fairly well sustained for 
20 years, the peak being reached in 1923. Since then, the catch has fallen off some- 
what but has not dropped much below the production of earlier years. Hole in the 
Wall is a small inlet about 4 miles north of Shakan Bay. It appears to have been 
fished regularly from 1906 to 1919, with the exception of 1911, and was then aban- 
doned. It was closed to commercial fishing in 1927. The catches reported from this 
locality in 1926 and 1927 were taken entirely by a trap outside the hole and presuma- 
bly consisted largely of salmon from the general Sumner Strait runs rather than from 
runs to this particular locality. 
Due to the fact that Keku Strait lies in two districts, it was necessary to make 
a somewhat arbitrary division of all catches that were allocated only to the strait. 
The southern part was therefore credited with the catches reported from Keku Strait 
by companies whose plants were located on or south of Sumner Strait. This method 
of allocation is not perfect, but it was used as being the most feasible plan in handling 
these unsatisfactory raw data. The strait was fished in 1906 and from 1910 to 1927, 
excepting 1921, the most productive years coming between 1915 and 1919. After 
this period of unusual demands on the fisheries, the catches became much smaller, 
falling off to the lowest level they had reached since 1914. The lean years were 
followed by four seasons of better catches, but 1927 was one of the poorest years ever 
known in Keku Strait. The fluctuations in catches here have no particular signifi- 
cance, however, in showing any depletion of the runs in this locality, as the strait is 
one of the routes used by migrating salmon to both northern and southern waters. 
Other indentations on the north side of Sumner Strait from Totem Bay to Blind 
Slough are not important fishery localities although fair catches have been made infre- 
quently at all of them; but for the most part the returns have been extremely variable. 
Duncan Canal was once highly regarded as a producer of red salmon. The catch of 
reds in 1904 was 18,713 ; in 1919 it was 61, while none was taken thereafter until 1926, 
when 1,138 were caught at Castle River. The same situation exists in respect of all 
other species, so that it would appear that the canal is now the most seriously depleted 
salmon area in the Sumner Strait district. 
Kah Sheets Bay, just south of the entrance to Duncan Canal, is noted for its 
red-salmon stream and the remarkably uniform catch that has been made there 
through many years. In 1897, the catch was 4,118; in 1927 it was 4,055. Data for 
