The Uncharted Riches of the Deep Sea
In 1891, visionary fisheries expert James G. Swan argued that Washington's future wealth wasn't just in timber, but in the massive, untapped halibut and cod banks off the coast.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
A well-known halibut bank, reported by the Indians, begins close to the shore in the vicinity of Cape Flattery and extends northwestward some fifteen miles. Halibut are abundant here from early spring until mid-July. By an accurate record kept at Neah Bay during 1889, it was ascertained that the tribe took 1,586,300 pounds during their season’s fishing, all or nearly all of which was dried for their winter use. It was in this locality that the schooner Mollie Adams obtained its fares of fresh halibut, which were shipped to Eastern markets in 1888. On July 24 of that year, the vessel left Seattle on a detached halibut cruise and, after trying several places, found the fish abundant off the southern extremity of the Queen Charlotte Islands, securing a haul of 150,000 pounds. Two such trips could be made in one season, while detached trips to Greenland or Iceland from New England ports consume an entire season. Two great obstacles prevent the development of this industry: the high price fishermen pay for ice and the exorbitant freight rates charged on railroads for transporting these fish East. If the railroads reduce their fares so that fish can be taken East as an article of economical food—and not as a luxury for the rich—then we will see the fishing industry become a vital factor in the wealth of this state.
“The city of Gloucester, one of the richest cities of its size in the Union, was built almost entirely from the profits made from the mackerel, cod and halibut of the Atlantic. We have all these elements of wealth in our waters.”
James G. Swan’s 1891 plea for Washington to leverage its massive, sustainable maritime resources over exploitative industrial models still resonates. Today, the tension remains between local small-scale fishing fleets and the global shipping interests that dictate the price of our region's natural bounty.
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