Waldo L. Schmitt - Report on the USBF Halibut Survey, 1914

In the early 1900s, the halibut industry in Alaska experienced a boom which abruptly changed just a decade later. Why? A combination of fishing methods and an increase in fisherman severely depleted supplies. In 1914--while the Alaskan industry suffered--the US Bureau of Fisheries commissioned a study of the halibut industry in Washington and Oregon. This report, summarizing the survey's findings, was written by Waldo L. Schmitt, the Naturalist aboard the USS Albatross surveying ship. Schmitt's findings included the abundance of halibut available on the West Coast, as well as the methods that fisherman were using to catch them. Join other digital volunteers in transcribing this important scientific study!