Alaska Herring History

Part I: Herring: The Fish and Its Utilization, 1878-1966 -- Alaska Herring: The Basics -- Early Development of Alaska's Herring Industry -- Salted Herring: The Early Years -- Early Alaska Herring Fishery Regulation and Research -- Alaska's Herring Industry Expands: 1924-1931 -- A Chronicle of Alaska's Herring Industry: 1932-1948 -- A Chronicle of Alaska's Herring Industry: 1949-1966 -- Bait Herring -- Part II: Roe Herring -- Alaska's Roe-Herring Fishery, Its Genesis and Management -- Sitka Sound Roe-Herring Fishery -- Resurrection Bay and Prince William Sound Roe-Herring Fisheries -- Lower Cook Inlet and Kodiak Area Roe-Herring Fisheries -- Togiak Roe-Herring Fishery -- Norton Sound Herring Fisheries -- Food Herring in the Modern Era -- Part III: Herring Spawn on Kelp -- Genesis of Alaska's Herring Spawn-on-Kelp Fishery -- Prince William Sound Herring Spawn-on-Kelp Fisheries, 1981-1993 -- Alaska Herring Spawn-on-Kelp Pound Fisheries -- Togiak and Norton Sound Herring Spawn-on-Kelp Fisheries.

Alaska Herring History is a thoroughly researched, well-documented, and comprehensive chronicle of Alaska’s herring fisheries. Author James Mackovjak describes the evolution of these fisheries from the late nineteenth century to the present, including harvest, processing, markets, and sustained-yield management considerations. The book is divided into three parts based on the purposes for which herring have been harvested. Part I is a history of the reduction (fertilizer/fish meal/fish oil) and cured (salted) herring industries and the bait-herring fisheries; part II is a history of the roe-herring fisheries in Southeast Alaska, Prince William Sound, Kodiak Island, lower Cook Inlet, Togiak, and Norton Sound; and part III is a history of the herring spawn-on-kelp industry. Historical and contemporary photos and illustrations—as well as graphs and charts that help summarize the development and, in some cases, the demise of the fisheries—augment this detailed look at the evolution of Alaska's herring fisheries. Balancing scientific details, historical facts, and personal anecdotes from experts in the field, Alaska Herring History will be of interest to historians, social scientists, biologists, and fishery managers and makes an important contribution to Alaska fisheries literature.

Herring are vital to the productivity and health of marine systems, and socio-ecologically Pacific herring (Clupea pallasii) is one of the most important fish species in the Northern Hemisphere. Human dependence on herring has evolved for millennia through interactions with key spawning areas—but humans have also significantly impacted the species’ distribution and abundance. Combining ethnological, historical, archaeological, and political perspectives with comparative reference to other North Pacific cultures, Herring and People of the North Pacific traces fishery development in Southeast Alaska from precontact Indigenous relationships with herring to postcontact focus on herring products. Revealing new findings about current herring stocks as well as the fish’s significance to the conservation of intraspecies biodiversity, the book explores the role of traditional local knowledge, in combination with archeological, historical, and biological data, in both understanding marine ecology and restoring herring to their former abundance.