218 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
CHIGNIK DISTRICT. 
This district was visited the latter part of July. The remarks made in my 
former report (pp. 161-171) on this locality hold good at the present day, and it 
appears unnecessary to make any changes or modifications after this second visit 
and examination. There have been no additions to the three operating canneries, 
which have packed every year to date. 
The cannery men still contend that there is no diminution in the numbers of 
salmon taken from the river and lagoon, yet the locality no doubt is badly over- 
fished. The lagoon and approaches and the river approaches are studded with traps, 
some with leads 3,500 feet long, and sometimes so interlaced that at a distance the 
channel appears completely blocked, and it hardly seems possible for a fish to pass. 
Plate ix indicates the positions of these traps at the time of our visit, and it will be 
seen that while 12 have but one pot, 6 have two. As the latter really consist of 2 
traps joined on the leads, there were actually 21 traps, or one more than during the 
season of 1897, at the time of our visit. 
My opinion of traps has been expressed and the waste from them referred to, 
but as a further illustration of this trap waste a single occurrence related to me 
may be given: A lighter having a capacity of 15 tons, and having nearly that 
amount of fish aboard, was towed to a cannery where the species desired for canning, 
amounting to about 6 tons, were removed; the rest, consisting of cod, tomcod, 
halibut, flounders, sculpins, dog salmon, trout, etc., were waste. In the spring of 
the year immense numbers of tomcod are taken. It is said that as much as 15 tons 
of this species have been thrown out of a trap in one day. 
Trap men claim that the waste species are released, but such is not generally the 
case. If the trap be full of fish not wanted, the pot may be lowered and the fish 
released alive, because that is the simplest method for emptying the pot, but usually 
all are dipped out together and the sorting is done afterwards. 
If traps be prohibited — and in i ny opinion they should be — it is difficult to say 
what the fishing results will be at Chignik. At present traps, gill nets, and seines 
are used, and the catch is represented in the following proportions: Traps, 70 to 75 
per cent; gill nets, 20 to 25 per cent; and seines, about 5 per cent. It is believed 
that an honest effort has been made with gill nets and seines, but the results have 
been very unsatisfactory. For gill-net fishing the water is too clear and the channels too 
shallow and narrow. For seining there are no beaches and the bottom is unsuitable. 
However, if the fish are there the cannerymen will devise some means for obtaining 
them. A few years ago purse seines were tried in southeastern Alaska and pronounced 
a failure; now they are very generally used in certain localities, and with such success 
that the boast is made that they need no longer construct barricades, as they take 
with purse seines all the fish that come to the streams. 
The times of the runs of the fish are given in my former report (page 169), to 
which may be added that some veai's there is a small run of humpbacks and usually 
a great many dog salmon. Steelheads rarely occur. Dolly Varden trout are 
numerous and arrive a few days before the redfish, remaining until late in the fall. 
The Chinese contract at Chignik varied this year from 42 cents to 42| cents per 
case, on guaranties of 20,000 to 28,000 cases, with the usual conditions. 
