688 
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 
Sycamore Bay, or Matanaska Bay as it is known locally, indents the northeast 
shore of Kodiak Island about midway between Kodiak and Uzinki. It is shown as a 
producer of a few thousand pink salmon in 1922 and 1925, and 2,650 red salmon in 
1923. This reported catch of red salmon is open to question, or else the movement of 
salmon in that year was most peculiar. Aside from one red taken in 1925, none was 
caught in this bay before or after 1923. This supports the view that the catch of that 
year was probably erroneously shown as Sycamore Bay fish. The streams at the head 
of the bay are small, yet appear to be large enough to support a much larger run of 
pinks, cohos, and chums than has been reported. 
Chiniak Bay includes Buskin River, Kalsin Bay, Middle Bay, Womens Bay 
(sometimes called English Bay), and St. Paul Harbor. It is largely a producer of 
pink salmon, the catches of this species being exceeded in only two other localities on 
the east coast of Kodiak Island — Kiliuda Bay and Sitkalidak Strait. It is interesting 
to note that the fisheries in these localities have shown their greatest development 
within the last 10 years. 
The red-salmon catches in this locality have been very uncertain, never large, 
and frequently none at all, but such as they were the greater part was taken at Buskin 
River. In late years this locality has produced noticeably fewer red salmon than it 
did 15 years earlier. There was a period of extremely unproductive years from 1912 
to 1922, three of which show no catch. This total absence of red salmon may have 
been due to the smothering of any spawn deposited in Buskin Lake and tributaries 
in 1912 and the next two years, on account of the heavy fall of volcanic ash in that 
region which seriously affected the spawning grounds of red salmon. Since 1922 there 
has been a distinct increase in the catch. Buskin River has also been the chief producer 
of coho salmon in this locality and the fluctuation in catch is strikingly similar to that 
of reds, though there were nine wholly unproductive years from 1913 to 1921, in- 
clusive. 
No pinks were reported from Kalsin Bay before 1919, none from Middle Bay 
until 1924, and none from St. Paul Harbor (known also as the village of Kodiak) 
before 1920, when 108,426 were credited to that place. A small stream enters the bay 
at this point, which in some years has attracted a few salmon, but the probability is 
remote that this catch was taken entirely at St. Paul Harbor. More than likely the 
greater part of it came from other points on the bay. 
The final section of the statistical table for the east coast of Kodiak Island district 
shows the total catch of salmon in the Chiniak Bay area, which is a combination of 
catches at St. Paul Harbor, Buskin River, Womens Bay, Middle Bay, Kalsin Bay, 
and Chiniak Bay. The catches of reds and cohos come chiefly from Buskin River and 
have been discussed above. The catches of pinks in the whole Chiniak Bay area 
from 1912 to 1927 are shown graphically in Table 23. There has been a remarkable 
increase in the catches since 1916, which is doubtless due to increased activity. It is 
interesting to note that there is no definite 2-year cycle established and that the 
fluctuations while marked are irregular. This condition has been mentioned above in 
the discussion of the pink-salmon runs of Afognak Island and Marmot Bay. 
The earliest recorded catch of salmon along the east coast of Kodiak Island was 
at Eagle Harbor, Ugak Bay, in 1894, when 2,000 barrels of red salmon were pickled, 
representing an estimated catch of 120,000 fish. Three years later a pack of 616 
barrels of reds was reported, which, at an average of 60 fish per barrel, shows a catch 
of 37,000 fish; and in 1900, six years later, the known catch was only 4,000 reds, all of 
