Story last updated at 5/19/2010 - 10:27 am
"Chums should be not canned at all!" Where did that statement come from? A new monthly fisheries trade magazine came out in 1903 covering the industry from California to Alaska. It also began a tradition of a yearbook.
In that first yearbook, the lead article was "The Salmon of the Pacific" written by Dr. David Starr Jordan, an early ichthyologist and president of California's Stanford University. He spoke of the "noble salmon" - kings and sockeye - and regarded other species as something less than noble. He announced, "Chums should not be canned at all." As for pinks, these he termed "imitation salmon."
Jordan lived at a time that the customer expected all salmon to be bright red in the can. Because of these expectations, red salmon in 1903 sold at $4.60 per case of 48 one-pound cans. Despite Jordon's distaste for pink, in 1903 they sold for $2.40 a case. I found no price for chums.
About 55 canneries operated in 1903 in Alaska, and 22 of them were in Southeast Alaska. The Klawock cannery of North Pacific Trading and Packing, built as the first Southeast Alaskan cannery in 1878, still operated.
No power fishing boats were in use. A few halibut steamers took men and hand-powered dories to the fishing grounds. Canneries and tenders were driven by steam engines except for a few heavy-duty gasoline engines. The Yearbook does not mention an internal combustion engine in any fishing boat or tender. Seiners were oar-powered with hand-pulled nets. Commercial hand trolling did not exist until a couple years later. Salmon traps used in British Columbia had not worked their way north in 1903.
Throughout Southeast, small salmon salteries existed in many remote coves. At least twelve reported to the US government about their operations that year. There were also mild-cure or pickled salmon buildings in a few coves including one at Taku Harbor.
Freezing fish on the Pacific Coast in 1903 was largely confined to steelhead destined for Europe. No fish were frozen in Alaska. The halibut fishery received scant attention in the Yearbook and none in the annual report of the Bureau of Fisheries. As for shellfish, oysters from Washington received the most attention.
In 107 years, Alaska's seafood industry has come a long way!
Pat Roppel, a 50-year resident of Southeast Alaska, is the author of numerous books about mining, fishing, and man's use of the land. She lives in Wrangell.
