SOUTHEASTERN ALASKA SALMON STATISTICS 
555 
Highfield. In 1912 one more cannery was opened at Wrangell, and eventually 
several salteries, mild curing stations, and fresh-fish dealers located at Wrangell and 
carried on a brisk trade with the independent gill netters, seiners, and trailers who 
operated out of that center. As the independent fishermen gradually monopolized 
the Stikine River fisheries the established companies extended their efforts to other 
fields and finally discontinued all gill netting in the district. This change led to the 
almost total disappearance of gill-net catches in the statistical returns made to the 
Government. The independent fishermen were operating as many nets as the com- 
panies ever did, but they made no report of the number of nets used or the number 
of fish caught. For this reason no data are available for use in this review showing 
the number of nets operated in the Stikine district after 1914, except those reported 
by the packing companies. The catch statistics were obtained only through the 
companies and dealers. Seines have been used to a limited extent; and traps were 
tried in 1900 in Dry Strait, at Gerard Point, and in the river, but all of them were 
complete failures. 
