THE SAI.MON AND SALMON FISHERIES OF ALASKA. 
49 
STATISTICS OF THE ALASKAN SALMON INDUSTRY. 
The following statistic.? of the salmon industry of Alaska comprise a continuous record of the 
business from 1878, the year of its origin, to 1897, when the investigations referred to in this report 
were made. The data are more comprehensive and useful than any heretofore i>ublished, and, 
besides showing the annual development of the industry in each section, will have a i)ermanent 
value because of the interesting comparisons that will be possible. For the years 1890 and 1897 
there are given detailed statistics of persons employed, capital invested, apparatus used, salmon 
utilized, and canned jiroducts prepared. Special statistics of the salmon salting conducted by 
independent establishments are shown for 1897. 
The total quantity of salmon canned in Alaska during the twenty years ending in 1897, as 
shown by the following table, was 7,508,358 cases, each case holding 48 oneqiound cans. The net 
weight of the fish thus prepared was 300,401,184 iiounds, while the gross weight of the salmon 
required for this pack was over 500,000,000 pounds. The average annual pack was 375,418 cases, 
but during the last ten years of the period in question the average quantity of salmon canned was 
091,743 cases and the total gross weight of the lisli utilized for canning Avas over 470,000,000 
pounds. Thus, between 1888 and 1897 the Alaskan waters yielded an average yearly output of 
47,000,000 pounds of salmon for canning purposes, in addition to large quantities which were salted. 
TaMe showinr/ hi/ years and districls the salmon-canniny operations in Alasla from 187S to 1807. 
Year. 
Soutboast 
Alaska. 
Prince 
AVilliam 
Sound and 
Copper 
Elver. 
Cook Inlet 
1 
Kadiak 
and 
Chignik. 
Bering 
Sea. 
Grand 
tntala, all 
Alaska. 
Canes. 
Ca:.es. 
Cases. 
Cases. 
Cases. 
Cases. 
1878 
8, 159 
8, 159 
1879 . . . . 
12. 530 
12, 530 
1880 
6, 539 
1 
0, 539 
1881 
8, 977 
i 
8. 977 
1882 
11, .OOl 
0, 044 
4,200 
21,745 
1883 
18, 040 
14, 818 
13, 479 
40, 337 
1884 
19, 189 
21,141 
20.156 
400 
no, 880 
ISS-A 
10, 828 
19,217 
33, 470 
14, 000 
77,515 
1880 
18,100 
28, 4.33 
40, 150 
48, 822 
141,505 
1887 
31,402 
30, 765 
71,750 
72, 700 
200, 077 
1888 
81,128 
42, 451 
198.050 
89, 880 
412,115 
1889 
130, 700 
24, 204 
50, 494 
380, 75,3 
115, 085 
714,196 
1890 
142, 901 
42, 194 
28, 655 
350, 451 
118, 390 
082, 591 
1891 
150,015 
08, 091 
58, 997 
384, 279 
133,418 
801,400 
1892 
115, 722 
20, 741 
274, 755 
03, 499 
474,717 
1893 
130, 053 
70, 998 
31,005 
291, 152 
107, 780 
0-13,054 
1894 
142, ,544 
78, 003 
31,033 
322, 350 
108, 844 
680, 440 
1895 
148, 470 
59, 494 
30, 188 
232, 237 
150, 135 
C20, 530 
1890 
202, 381 
92, 800 
34, 707 
358, 357 
218, 330 
900, 707 
1897 
271, 807 
52, 057 
32, 532 
298, 310 
254,312 
909, 078 
Total 
1,739, 832 
494, 507 
490, 941 
3. 280, 505 
1, 490, 513 
7, 508, 358 
j| For four years after .salmon canning was begun in Alaska it was confined to the southeastern 
i part of the Territory ; in 1882 the bu.siness was inaugurated in the Cook Inlet and the Kadiak 
regions; two years later canning commenced in Bering Sea, and in 1889 in Prince William Sound. 
In all of these sections the industry has continued and has undergone a great increase, so tliat the 
1 pack of 1897 was larger than that of any ]»revious year except 1890.' Up to and including 1897 
I more than two-fifths of the canned products, namely, 3,280,505 cases, had come from the Kadiak 
I and Chignik district; somewhat more than one-lifth, or 1,739,832 cases, from southeast Alaska, and 
j a little less than one-fifth, or 1,490,513 cases, from Bering Sea. The condensed tables showing the 
! ' The Alaska saliiiou pack of 1898 was about 900,000 cases. 
I F. C. B. 1898—4 
'! 
1 
