The Harbor's Salmon Season: 40,000 Cases, 200 Jobs—and a Case for the Lowly Dog Salmon
A Grays Harbor cannery packed nearly two million cans and paid fishermen more than $50,000 in three months, while a correspondent argued the maligned dog salmon was as good as dried beef.
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A correspondent of the Ledger gives some interesting statistics regarding this season's catch of salmon in this harbor, and also some facts about the dog salmon as an article of food. The pack at the cannery has been 40,000 cases, or 100,000 dozen, or 1,920,000 cans. Employment was given to about 200 persons. The 58 Chinamen packers were paid by the case. Fishermen have made about $550 to the boat, or $275 to the man during the season. The fishermen have earned a little more than $50,000 during the season of three months.
In addition to the canning business, tons of sturgeon have been shipped to Tacoma and Portland, and a considerable quantity salted. A fisherman stated to the correspondent that eighty men would begin the 15th of this month to fish for the steelhead salmon, which is shipped fresh to the same market as the sturgeon, and gave as his estimate of the season's catch 4,000,000 pounds, requiring 100 cars to transport, and valued at $100,000.
In speaking of the dog salmon as an article of food as compared with the silverside he says: "They are nearly of the same color, the silverside being slightly reddish. The dog salmon can hardly be told from a piece of dried beef. Lying side by side on the table the silverside appears redder, but when picked to pieces there is no apparent difference between the size of the fibers, which would indicate that the dog salmon is no coarser than its more beautiful brother. But the silversides break up into smaller bits, actually crumbling to pieces in the mouth, while the dog salmon breaks into chunks and contains less oil. Doubtless the oil gives to the silverside its particular taste and in that only can the two fish be said to differ. The silverside is superior to dried beef in taste and ease of preparation for the table, while the dog salmon is its equal in either. The silverside is a delicacy, its color alone recommending it to the epicure, while the dog salmon is good food for any one who would consider dried beef of sufficient merit for his use."
Why this really fine fish has been considered unfit for food is hard to determine, unless it is the association of ideas in relation to its name. If this be all then the sooner it is re-named the better, for by its rejection the loss to the harbor is great.
“Why this really fine fish has been considered unfit for food is hard to determine, unless it is the association of ideas in relation to its name.”
Grays Harbor's salmon economy once employed hundreds and shipped fish by the trainload; today the same waters face runs in crisis and a cannery landscape largely vanished. The argument over which fish counts as food—and who gets paid to process it—still shapes working waterfronts.
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