ALASKA SALMON INVESTIGATIONS IN 1900. 
309 
HALIBUT FISHERIES OF SOUTHEASTERN ALASKA. 
Since my former report On this subject, pages 45 to 48, there has been no develop- 
ment of any halibut banks in this section, but the spots in which these fish occur have 
been utilized by small boats in a manner that has made them profitable. 
A few years prior to 1899 the fresh-halibut fishery was conducted by a few small 
schooners and sloops, chiefly from Puget Sound, which shipped the iced product by 
freight steamers to the Sound market from Wrangell. The fishing, however, was 
desultory, and could hardly have been called profitable until 1899, when the Icy Strait 
Packing Company completed their wharf at Petersburg, near the upper end of 
Wrangell Narrows, and arranged with a steamship company to make regular calls for 
freight. Under this arrangement it was agreed that the halibut boats of Chatham 
Strait and Frederick Sound should ship from the new station. During the first 
winter, from October, 1899, to March, 1900, about 20 small schooners and sloops of 
from 5 tons to 20 tons formed the fleet, calling regularly at Petersburg with fresh 
halibut for shipment. The fish were obtained chiefly in Chatham Strait and Fred- 
erick Sound. Twelve of these vessels averaged 2 dories and 5 men, and 8 averaged 
1 dory and 3 men, making a total of 32 dories and 84 men, each of whom may be said 
to have had a personal interest in a vessel. From October, 1899, to April, 1900, the 
Icy Strait Packing Company also engaged in the halibut fisheries, employing their 
cannery steamers for this purpose. The steamer White Wings , 34 tons, valued at 
$7,000, besides her regular winter crew of 4, carried 8 deck-hands and fishermen, 
working 4 dories; and the steamer Annie M. Nixon , 18 tons, valued at $6,000, in 
addition to her crew of 4, employed 6 fishermen, working 3 dories. The fishermen 
received board and 20 cents per fish of more than 15 pounds weight. The fish aver- 
aged 40 pounds, dressed. The largest weighed 250 pounds. The catch for the season 
of the Icy Strait Packing Company amounted to 700 boxes of fresh halibut iced, 
500 pounds net weight per box, and was shipped to Seattle and sold at an average 
price of 3 cents per pound. It is said that the 20 small craft engaged in the fishery 
each averaged 40 boxes of fresh halibut per month, making 200 tons per month. 
It may therefore be said that there were employed on these halibut fisheries 
from October, 1899, to the end of March, 1900, two small steamers and 20 small sail 
vessels, using 39 dories and employing 98 fishermen. 
The ice used is gathered from the neighboring glaciers, and if ground in a mill 
made for the purpose is in the best form, though many merely break it into tine 
lumps with a club. 
As mentioned in my former report, no great banks where halibut occur in such 
numbers that a seagoing vessel may make a load and return to market have yet 
been found in Alaska, but there are many spots on which halibut may be found, and 
fishing from small vessels convenient to a steamer route, as outlined above, seems to 
offer the best means for conducting these fisheries successfully. 
It is possible that these fisheries will increase in importance until the spots are 
cleaned off, when some other field will be sought until the grounds recuperate. At 
present it is promising enough to attract the attention of many small fishers from 
the Sound country. The gear used consists of bottom trawls and long hand lines; it 
is simple and inexpensive. 
