Sheldon Museum and Cultural Center: Historical Vignettes

SUBSISTENCE FISHING
Many Alaskans, native and non-native, depend upon subsistence fishing to put food on their tables throughout the year. All Alaskans are entitled to certain subsistence rights. Subsistence permits for Alaska residents must be obtained from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game each year. These permits allow residents to use gillnets to catch a specified number of sockeye, pink, and chum salmon each year in the Chilkat River and/or the Lynn Canal. Subsistence rules also exist for crab and shrimp fishing. A spring ritual of particular importance to local Tlingits, is the harvest of eulachon, "Saak" (Tlingit), commonly referred to as hooligan. Eulachon are sea run smelt that return to fresh water to spawn for about one week each spring in early May. These fish are particularly prized for their oil by Tlingits who catch them with dipnets, store them in pits, and render the fermented fish in vats along the banks of the Chilkat River. The oil collected from this process is rich in nutritional value and a staple of the traditional Tlingit diet. Eulachon are also dried, smoked, and frozen. Eulachon return to both the Chilkat and Chilkoot Rivers in varying numbers each year. Their return signals the beginning of the food-gathering season. Eulachon can be gathered for personal use by any Alaskan with a fishing license. Another fish that may be gathered for personal use is herring. When herring are abundant, their eggs are harvested by placing hemlock boughs, tied to the shore, on a spawning beach at low tide. The herring lay their eggs on the boughs.	Fishing using subsitence nets
	Eulachon strung up for drying or smoking

SPORT FISHING
Halibut	Chinook or king salmon arrive in the spring soon after the eulachon. A limited salt-water sport-fishing season is allowed for these prized salmon depending on Alaska Fish and Game’s estimated number of fish returning each year. Sockeye and pink salmon arrive next, and both can be fished by sport fishermen in both fresh and salt water, although pink salmon are more likely to strike a lure than are sockeye. Coho or silver salmon arrive in late summer and fall. These fish are also prized by sportfishermen. Chum or dog salmon also arrive in late summer and run through December. Chums are edible, and are sometimes caught and smoked, but are not favored sportfish. Dolly Varden and sea run char are good to eat and can be caught in both fresh and salt water during their extended season. Halibut, found in the deep waters of the Lynn Canal are another important sportfish, with a limit of two halibut per person. All five species of salmon run up the Chilkat River each year. The Chilkoot River supports four species of salmon only, as chinook do not run up the Chilkoot. Sportfishing regulations and licenses for both residents and non-residents can be obtained at any local sporting goods store in Haines which can also provide needed gear and useful sportfishing tips.	A trophy king salmon.

COMMERCIAL FISHING

Nets being sorted at the Chilkat Packing Company cannery.

Commercial fishing in the area began before the turn of the century, and there were several canneries by the early 1900’s. M.J. Kinney of Astoria built the first cannery, Chilkat Packing Co., on the eastern side of the Chilkat inlet in 1883. This cannery changed hands several times and finally burned in 1892. Another cannery on the eastern side of the inlet was operated from 1889 to 1893. It had a capacity of 800 cases per day.The Pyramid Harbor cannery on the western side of the Chilkat Inlet was built in 1883 by the Northwest Trading Company. This cannery burned in 1889, but was rebuilt at once and a pack was made that year. This cannery packed 1000 cases of fish per day and in 1896 employed over 100 people in the cannery, many of whom were Chinese, and over 200 fishermen both native and newcomers.

Cannery fishermen used large gill nets and some purse seines. A fleet of steamers, transport ships, lighters, riverboats, and skiffs were also used in cannery operations. The average redfish (sockeye) catch from 1894 to 1898 was 300,000 per year. One sturgeon, weighing about 12 pounds, was taken in the Chilkat River Estuary in 1896. Coho and chum salmon were also commercially fished in these early times. Dolly Varden and halibut were also plentiful.

The natives at this time also fished from canoes moored to posts, or from platforms built over the streams. They used large gaffs, consisting of an unbarbed hook about 4 inches across the bend, secured to a stout pole, which was thrust into the water to impale a fish and drag it in. When fish were plentiful the hook was simply dragged through the water. A large number of fish from the Chilkoot River were taken this way. Gaffed fish were thrown into a wooden box alongside the fishermen. Wooden fish traps were also used, particularly in the Chilkoot. Narrow channels with rocks were also constructed in the Chilkoot to assist with the capturing of fish. Natives received from four to ten cents per redfish brought to the canneries. There was a cannery, operated by the Chilkoot Packing Company, on the northern shore of the Chilkoot inlet. Chilkoot redfish were quite large, averaging seven to eight pounds each. A handful of steelhead were also recorded at this cannery. The western shore of the Chilkoot River was the site of a significant native fishing village. Klukwan was (and is) the primary native village on the Chilkat.

Letnikof Cove Cannery

The Letnikof Cove Cannery, built by Tim Vogel in 1917 was purchased by Haines Packing Company in 1936. Other canneries in the area were located at Paradise Cove, in town, and near today’s ferry terminal. "Chilkoot Chips" (smoked salmon pieces) were produced from 1958-66 at Port Chilkoot in the former Fort Seward bakery building. The 1924 season saw a floating shrimp cannery from Petersburg at the end of the Haines City Dock. Shrimp were numerous and delicious, but the deep water made them difficult to catch. Twenty-five cents bought all the shrimp the six Sheldons could possibly eat at a beach picnic. Gillnetters Norm and Patricia Blank hand packed their freshly caught salmon from 1966-1995. They now vacuum pack their smoked salmon. Dijon Delights, located in the Ft. Seward area, has been the main source of a variety of fresh canned and smoked seafood since 1983. The Chilkat Center for the Arts, located behind Alaska Indian Arts in the Ft. Seward area, is a restored building that was originally part of the Pyramid Harbor Cannery. The building was cut into sections, hauled by barge around the peninsula, and then reassembled at its present site in 1919.

Commercial fishing remains strong in the Haines area today. In 1992, there were approximately 100 commercial fishing permits held by Haines residents and the commercial fishery annually employs about 200 people in Haines. As of 1992, as many as 336 boats combined with the local gill net fleet to fish Lynn Canal. There are a total of 485 gill net permit holders in Southeast Alaska which are all eligible to fish in Lynn Canal. The number of fish caught each year varies significantly, as does the market value of these fish. 1988 was a record year bringing in $15.6 million to commercial fishermen in the Lynn Canal. Harvests of sockeye, chum, and coho salmon were the third highest on their respective records, and the value of the catch was about double that of the previous year. Factors contributing to the record value of the harvest in 1988 included the increased purchasing power of the Japanese yen and mediocre harvests elsewhere in Alaska that year. Chilkoot system sockeye were at an all time high that year, although Chilkat sockeye runs were down significantly.

In 1991, the Lynn Canal gillnet fishery was shut down in mid-season for the first time in nearly ten years. This was partly due to particularly low returns of Chilkoot sockeye which did not surpass 40,000, although speculations had been closer to 60,000. The herring commercial fishery has been closed since the stock collapsed in 1979, although a somewhat improved return was noticed in 1992. The 1994 gillnet season closed with a $4 million commercial value. Record coho and summer chum catches and increased prices for sockeye could not make up for the below average sockeye landings and depressed prices for chum. Only 37,000 sockeye were counted at the Chilkoot weir that year. The sockeye return to the Chilkoot bottomed out at 7,000 in 1995, but rebounded in 1996 to 52,000. In 1996, low market values continued to haunt the commercial fishing industry. Glacier Seafoods, a corporation of eight local fisherman, decided to take matters into their own hands and start a local fish processing plant at the site of the old lumber mill near the ferry terminal. A pullout of their Kenai processing partner coupled with low market values for salmon forced an early closing of the operation, although hopes and plans remain for expanding future operations. Crab, shrimp and halibut are also important commercial fisheries in the area. A raw fish tax returns monies from the local fisheries resource to the Haines Borough.

Fishing boat docked at small boat harbor.

The small boat harbor with Haines House in the background.

For further information on industry in Haines please view the following link:
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