The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1909-07-30
ANTICIPATE BIG
SALMON PACK
Purse Seiners Making Good Catches But
Traps Get But Few Owing to Slack
1ides--Big Run in Straits

Purse seiners have been making
good catches of sockeyes on the banks
| this week and the prevailing price
| paid for the fish has been thirty cents.
rather more than the cannerymen are
able to pay in order to allow them to
make anything like reasonable pro-
f1t on the packed product. The seln-
| ers are reported to have captured TO-
600 fish on Tuesday and on Monday
and Wednesday similar catches were
also reported. Owing to the slack
tides but comparatively few fish we're
| taken in the traps, early in the week,
but later better catches we're reported
and seine fish dropped to twenty cents.
A Victoria dispatch to the Post Intel
ligencer under date of July 26, says
r''Three miles of sockeyes passed into
the Strait this morning, and the is
land traps are being we'll filled. The
belated run, for which fishermen have
been anxicusly waiting for sixteen
days, is OIL IN earnest. Half an hour
after one of the outer traps, the Todd
trap at Coal Greek, was lifted this
morning, the crew reported that TO-.
600 sockeyes had entered the trap,
and it WIS expected the lift would
run into thousands. When the tugs
arrived this evening the fishermen re-
ported that the Strait was thick with
fish and the traps we're being heavily
loaded
A fairly good idea of fishing con
ditions on the Fraser river may be
cleaned from the following dispatch
from New Westminster under date OF
July 26: s'Local fishermen believe
that the big sockeya run has at last
commenced. More fish were taken to-
day than on any occasion before this
season. The average was abous 70 te
the boat, while the highest catch was
227. Vast schools of fish are report
ed off Carmanah point and in the
Gulf making for the river. The can
ners expect increasing catches from
now to the end of the week. when the
maximum is anticipated.
While a good many fish have al
ready been canned nothing like
enough lave been received to keep the
canneries running for more than a
few hours each morning and greater
portion of these have been packed by
the big P. A. F. plant at Bellingham
and the Bellingham Canning Co.. of
the same place. Aside from these
two the local plant, owned by the
Friday Harbor Packing Co.. has Jared
as we'll as any of them. It is one of
the best arranged best equipped in all
its departments and most up to-date
plants on the Sound. Being new in
every detail and doing perfect work
the company will have no difficulty
in getting up its pack provided they
get the fish, and in this particular
they stand as good chance as any
of the others.
There is much speculation as to
what the size of the salmon pack will
be and also it's value. Various esti-
mates have been given by men asso-
ciated with the industry, but the sal
mon packing business Is gamble
from start to finish and no one can
possibly tell until after the season
closes. In an interview few days
ago, Frank L. Deming. one OF the
foremost figures in the packing house
world. man of conservative ideas
but at the same time somewhat OF an
optimist, said: ''The entire salmon
pack probably will be worth $50, OOo.-
900 this year. Of course this is spe-
cularive, but it gives general idea
of the importance of the salmon In
dustry.''
No statistics have yet been compll-
ed comparing the salmon packing In
dustry with the other big packing IN
stitntions OF the world. but, accord
ing to Frank G. Let's. president OF
the A. Booth Packing Company. OF
Chicago, a concern that handles I'M
mense quantities OF fish. the sockeye
is rapidly becoming the leading sal
mon Of the world. Mr.. Let's ls Also
at the head of twenty wholesale gro
cerles that reach ont to the trade OF
several. Eastern and Middle western
states. He is thus in touch Win
market conditions everywhere. lie
saws the demand for sockeye is IN
creasine with marked rapidity and
that the Ash is we'll known IN the
United States. Mr.. Letts is also 9
big stockholder in the 2. A. +. and
is IN Bellingham with the Frank L
Deming party from Chicago. Eleven
Of the fourteen who started from Chi