CHIGNIK TO RESURRECTION BAY SALMON STATISTICS 
677 
AFOGNAK ISLAND DISTRICT 
This district includes the coastal waters of the north shore of Raspberry Island, 
all the shores of Afognak Island (except those bordering on Marmot Bay) from 
Afognak Village westward and northward to Tonki Cape, Shuyak Island, and all 
other adjacent islands. 
Afognak Village, one of the oldest settlements in western Alaska, is located on 
the southern shore of Afognak Island, a few miles south of Afognak Bay, perhaps 
largely for the reason that a good red-salmon stream at the head of the bay afforded 
an ample supply of fish for domestic needs. Rather large catches were formerly 
made for such purposes. It may also be true that salmon from this stream were used 
commercially long before the erection of canneries in that section, but no authentic 
records of this are extant. It is known, however, that two canneries were built at 
the head of the bay in 1889 and made packs in 1889 and 1890. In 1891, these plants 
were not operated, but the fish which otherwise would have been taken by them 
from near-by streams were packed at Karluk and credited to the Afognak canneries. 
The pack in 1889, according to Moser, was 41,912 cases of red salmon, which, at 
14 fish per case (a fair average for this region), gives a catch of 586,768 salmon. In 
1890 the pack was 36,426 cases, and the computed catch was 509,964. Records 
show that one cannery operated in 1891, making a pack of 25,000 cases, representing 
a catch of approximately 350,000 salmon. 
No information is available showing where these catches were made. It is safe 
to assume that they were not taken entirely from Afognak waters, else the production 
then was vastly greater than it has been in subsequent seasons. Part of the salmon 
canned by these plants undoubtedly came from Uganik Bay and other waters of 
Kodiak Islands, as many “old timers” now living at Afognak and Kodiak bear 
witness. Probably not more than 50 per cent of the catches in these three years 
came from Afognak streams and 75 per cent of that half from the streams of the 
west coast of Afognak, leaving the remaining 25 per cent as the catch at Afognak, 
Little Afognak, and Izhut Bays in the Marmot Bay district. If these rough esti- 
mates are even approximately correct, the catch in this district in 1889 was 220,000 
red salmon; in 1890, 190,000; and in 1891, 130,000. 
Salmon fishing was presumably carried on at Malina, Paramanof Bay, and Seal 
Bay long before the earliest dates recorded here, but no record of catches could be 
found. Malina was undoubtedly one of the important fishing grounds of the can- 
neries located for a few years on Afognak Bay, or until the Afognak Reservation was 
established in 1892. From that year until 1907, the earliest year for which records 
are available, it seems likely that the natives of Afognak Village continued to fish at 
Malina and sold their catches to salters at Kodiak or salted them right at the fishing 
grounds for ultimate sale at Kodiak. The same situation may have existed also 
at Seal and Paramanof Bays. All such operations, however, were in violation of 
the terms of the presidential proclamation creating the Afognak Fisheries Reser- 
vation, as the right to fish in the reservation was restricted to the taking of salmon 
for domestic purposes only, and there are, naturally, no records of catches made 
during this period. 
In 1911, representations were made to the Department of Commerce that the 
natives of Afognak Island were dependent upon these fisheries for a livelihood, and 
that they would suffer extreme poverty and distress if commercial fishing could 
not be resumed, and in April, 1912, a departmental order was promulgated opening 
