The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1902-08-14
AROUND SAN JUAN
A DELIGHTFUL TRIP TO THE SALMON
BANKS AND WEST COAST
Some Interesting Facts and Figures About
the Great Salmon Fishing Industry
Capital and Labor Employsd-Proba-
billty Of Operation Of Cannery Here.

] Quite number of the business and
professional men of Friday Harbor are
indebted to Supt. Huntoon, of the Pa
cific American Fisheries Company, for
most delightful trip Sunday to the
salmon banks and around San Juan
island, running close inshore on the
west side past Kanaka bay, Cowell's
lime works and through, Mosquito
| pass, on board the company's fine little
| steamer Sachem, which has only been
in commission few days. The vessel
was built at the company's ship-yard
on Eliza island and the machinery at
the company's shops in Fairhaven. 1t
was the Sachem's first visit here and
the trip was made especially to give
some of the citizens here all opportun-
ity to visit the banks and take run
around the island. Hardly any of
them, although residents many years,
had ever been along the west coast be-
fore. Stops were made at the COM
pany's group of traps on the banks,
extending three miles out from Cattle
point, and bountiful dinner was
served at the scamp, on shore. 1t was
a lovely day for such trip, so calm
that there was scarcely ripple on the
water. While the August haze and
the smoke of timber fires not far dis
tant limited the vision to far mar
rover horizon than usual, they tenn
! pered the SUMS rays and relieved the
glare of the waters, SO it was most COM
Portable and pleasant every minute on
the Sachem's deck.
1t would have been pleasure to all
of the party from here TO see trap
"lifted" and to most of them it would
have been a new experience, even to
some who have lived for years within
a few miles of the great salmon banks,
but it was not the right time of day for
lifting and even in the largest traps
there were only few hundred salmon.
The season on the banks has been the
most improbable and unsatisfactory
in the history of trap fishing there. 1t
is questionable If enough fish have
been. taken in all of the traps to defray
the expense of driving and operating
them. Salmon have seemed plentiful
in deep water but the summer has been
so calm that they have kept off shore
to a much greater extent than in
former years and have passed by traps
that have heretofore been noted for
enormous catches. At this time last
year about 25O,OOO cases of sockeyes
had been packed at the p. A. f. Co. Is
great cannery in Fairhaven, while this
year the pack of this variety there 80
far-and the "rup" is considered prac.
tically over-is less than $4,000 cases.
Last year single traps caught enough
fish to supply large canneries with all
they could handle, and the average
cost of fish so caught probably did not
lexceed three cents each to the trap
owners. This year the cannery COM
panies have been glad to obtain all the
fish they could get from purse seiners,
paying for them as high as eighteen
cents each. The p. A. F. Co. has had
4 ten purse-sein "outfits" of its own on
the fishing grounds and twenty-eight
others employed, most of them making
considerable money. The company
paid out 1000 to purse seiners at Rich
ardson Saturday and the checks issued
on the same day to its trap employees
on the salmon banks aggregated 81 800
for July wages. During good season
the average monthly outlay for wages
alone on the hanks, not including the
steamboat crews, is about $1,000 by the
P. A. F. Co. only. This has been an
off year-badly Off in fact-and yet the
company expended more than half a
million dollars in cash for labor and
material before fish was taken. For
the one ''little item" Of solder alone,
used in the manufacture of cans, $780,
900 was paid. Five million one-pound
cans were made. by the company and
!, 700, 900 half-pound cans were bought
from the Pacific Hhast Metal works
at Fairhsven. These figures will afford
some idea Of the magnitude of, the