The Wrangell sentinel. (Wrangell, Alaska) 1909-current, 1938-12-23


country. This is only one Of the
plants that will be built" How true
his prophecy was. for plants have
been built at Port Conclusion. Port
Armstrong, three in Port Walter,
one in Port Herbert. one in Deep
Cove at Patterson Bay, one in Warm
Springs Bay, Washington Harbor,
and Saginaw Bay. The herring sal
terry at Killisnoo turned into a fer
tilizer plant as well.
We fishermen remember when
the herring were here in such album
dance that the herring fishermen
had only to pull away from the dock
and start fishing in the following
harbors and the mouths thereof:
Port Conclusion. Port Armstrong,
Port Lucy, Port Walter, Port Her
bert, and in fact up the whole
length of Chatham Straits. But now
they no longer do SO. and Port Al
exander-once the most prominent
anchorage for the trolling and her
ring fishing fleets now a ghost
town The boats rush madly up and
down the Straits, outside of Baran-
of Island. into the bays and estu-
aries, in hopes of finding a small
school of herring.
Bureau of Fisheries. we will try
to show you how herring seiners.
can clean out a bay. Three years
ago, between 35 and 40 trolling
boats were fishing in Whale Bay.
At daylight of the morning of which
We speak, four large herring seine
boats came into the bay. It was flat
calm. A school of herring showed
up about three miles inside of
North Cape and were seen by the
four boats. The first boat making
a set took 700 barrels; the other
three boats each got small catches
and completed the destruction of
this school of herring upon which,
the salmon we were fishing for
were feeding. The result was that
We caught practically no more sal
mon there that year.
Larch Bay near the South End of
Baranof Island, was at one time the
greatest herring fishing ground in
Southeastern Alaska. 1t used to be
lighted up at night by lights of her.
ring fishing boats to make it look
like a city on the water, but it has
been at last cleaned out and very
few fish have been taken there this
year
We can cite many instances in
the inland waters where herring
have been cleaned out in a similar
way. However, SO as not to take up
too much c: Jour time, we will bring
to your attention a location close
to Wrangell For many years, we
had very good salmon trolling here
in the fall, and the reason was that
large schools of immature herring
came in here to winter. The banks
and bays, particularly in the Ear
embo Island distri I, were lined
with schools, so dense, that to the
eye. they presented a purplish blue
tint. We no longer have those her
ring show up here, we no longer
have the good fall fishing that we
h i Il tn n, and the reason is this:
these fish are now in oil and fertil-
izer. The Cold Storages have diff
Guilty in getting enough herring to
freeze for bait purposes, and we are
not wrong when we make this
statement that the Wrangell Cold
Storage has not yet been able to get
fifty barrels when it needs several
hundred.
Another proof of the depletion of
the herring is the fact that the her
ring seiners did not average $4,000
per share this year. Many of them
did not have a dime at the end of
the season and the Company had to
pay for their grub.
Here is another prophecy which