CHIGNIK TO RESURRECTION BAY SALMON STATISTICS 
709 
Table 32. — Graphic table showing catch of pink salmon, Cook Inlet, 1906-1927 
[Each letter represents 50,000 fish] 
Year 
1906 
1907 
1908 
1909. 
1910 
1911 
1912 
1913 
1914 
1915. 
1916 
1917. 
1918. 
1919 
1920 
1921 
1922 
1923 
1924 
1925. 
1926 
1927. 
Catch 
XX 
X 
XXXXXXXX 
X 
XXXXX 
XX 
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX 
X 
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX 
X 
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX 
XX 
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
X 
xxxxxxxxx 
X 
XXXXXXXXXXXXX 
X 
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
X 
xxxxxxxxxxxx 
xxxxxx 
Pink salmon were taken in all important localities in the inlet, but the bulk 
of the catch was unallocated prior to 1918. In 1916 the entire catch was unallo- 
cated, and high percentages in earlier years were likewise reported as merely coming 
from Cook Inlet. Data for subsequent years are more definite and can be discussed 
with reasonable exactness. It is known that before 1921 there was comparatively 
little fishing for pinks south of Bluff Point, but it seems impossible to make a finer 
division of the unallocated catch in those earlier years beyond that shown in the 
three sections termed “east shore,” “west shore,” and “northern part.” Since 1921 
the catch of pinks has come chiefly from the east shore, except in three instances 
when noteworthy catches were made in the northern part of the inlet. One of these 
occurred in 1922 when 159,182 pinks were taken in the vicinity of Chuit River and 
the other two in 1924 at Three Mile Creek and Point Possession. Since 1924 no 
locality north of the Forelands has produced any considerable number of pinks. 
In 1926, 45 per cent of the catch, exclusive of unallocated fish, came from waters 
of the eastern shore south of Anchor Point; and in 1927, 94 per cent of the allocated 
catch, or 72 per cent of the entire inlet catch, came from the same waters, of which 
55 per cent, or 101,235, came from the south shore of Ivachemak Bay east of Sel- 
dovia Bay — a district that had been fished but little until recently. Nineteen hun- 
dred and twenty-seven provided the largest catch of pink salmon recorded for any 
odd year since fishing commenced on the inlet. This is an interesting development 
of the pink-salmon fishery in showing a departure from the old order of things and 
contrary to the well-established notion that runs of pinks are very light in the odd 
years. A quarter of a million salmon from a district the size of Cook Inlet is not a 
large catch in one season, but in comparison with the average catch in preceding 
off years it constitutes a change worthy of more than passing notice. It is inter- 
esting to note, however, that in various other places throughout central Alaska 
1927 was an exceptionally productive odd year. Bower 21 in discussing the small 
pack of 1927 says: “A contributing factor also was the smaller run of humpback 
salmon that occurs in central Alaska in alternate years, although it may be noted 
that while the catch of this species was considerably less than in 1926 and 1924, it 
21 Alaska Fishery and Fur-Seal Industries in 1927. By Ward T. Bower, Report U. S. Commissioner of Fisheries for 1928. 
