Industrial film. A comprehensive look at the B.C. salmon industry, including the salmon run; fishing techniques; salmon species; Nass and Skeena River migrations; Hells Gate fishways; cannery operations. Concludes with a cooking demonstration, showing methods of preparing and serving salmon.

The item is a typescript copy of a thesis by Keith Harry Ralston titled "The 1900 strike of Fraser River sockeye salmon fisherman." xiv, 183 leaves, figs., tables. Thesis (M.A.), University of British Columbia, 1965. Bibliography: leaves 177-183.

Industrial film. "The film opens with this caption: 'This is the inside story of an important Canadian industry and of a domestic commodity that ranks among the chief products annually exported from the Dominion.'. . . . Scenes include salmon being brought up in a net and dumped into the hold of a boat. . . . CU salmon squirming in the hold. Boats leaving a large cannery town. Two fishermen jump into a large holding area, where the salmon are being kept on ice, and pitch them through a slot into the cannery. CU fish on ice. Interior of cannery -- two rows of girls with white aprons and hats processing the fish. CU cans rolling down a wire framework . . . . CU cans being lifted by machines. CU cans being labelled. . . . Back to first operation of cannery: a hatch is opened and fish spill out into a trough of running water. MS trough with conveyor belt. . . . Interior of plant showing salmon being gutted, cleaned, headed and tailed by machine. Salmon spill out . . . onto conveyor belts. CU fish being inspected. Shot of girls cleaning salmon manually then placing them on the conveyor belt again. . . . Fish are placed in conveyor buckets which carry them to the slicer. CU slicer. Slices exiting and being packed by girls into cans. . . . Open cans move along belts to be inspected, weighed, etc. CU machines placing and clinching lids. . . . Cans move along belt to sorting department where Japanese workers place them on large trays and wheel them into huge ovens. . . . CU valve turning on the steam. . . . Back of ovens with man checking machinery. . . . CU tins being weighed. Man puncturing tin for a vacuum reading. . . . CU machines testing texture and men inspecting colour etc. with microscope. . . . Shipping room - girls pack tins from trays into cardboard boxes and men wheel boxes to storeroom. A woman in a modern kitchen opens a tin of salmon. She breaks the chunk of salmon apart on a china plate. . . . More shots of cooked salmon in several combinations." (Colin Browne)

The item is an audio recording produced for the Provincial Archives' Sound Heritage Series under contract. Rivers Inlet is one of the major sockeye salmon fishing areas on the B.C. coast. From the beginning, the Rivers Inlet fishery was the most important and regular source of income for the people at Bella Coola, Cape Scott and Sointula. In this sound program, fishermen recall the early days of fishing with oar and sail, the hundreds of boats, and the crowded cannery floats. They tell stories of personal adventures, union struggles, of good times and bad during the six weeks of mid-summer that are still the River Inlet fishing season.

Industrial film. British Columbia's salmon fishing industry. Includes footage of: sport fishing; salmon runs; map of fishing grounds on Pacific coast; fleet of gillnetters at work off the coast; cannery operations; the canned product with colourful labels[spliced-in silent colour section]; the felling and milling of lumber for shipping boxes; quality control laboratory; loading product onto a freighter. Includes footage of an "Iron Chink" salmon butchering machine.

RECORDED: [location unknown], 1976-03-17 SUMMARY: [No content summary available for this interview.];

RECORDED: [location unknown], 1976-04-03 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Coming to Canada. Married 1908. Fishing at Blackfish. Trollers. Cannery operations before 1908, including the "Iron Chink" salmon butchering machine. Story of a close call at sea in the Aleutians. Halibut fishing. Went to Bering Strait before 1908. First fishing boat. Ranching in Alberta after WWI; hard hit by the Depression. His grandfather settled on Orcas Island and grew hay. [Mr. Still grew up on Orcas.] TRACK 2: Probably made trip to the Bering Sea in 1903 or later. Rowboat fishing. Fish abundant. Story of man abandoned by dog team. Eskimos at cannery. More on canneries and fishermen. Fishing methods then and now. Story about towboating and breaking up a log boom.

SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Roy York RECORDED: Ladner (B.C.), 1976-03-04 SUMMARY: Roy York was born in Vancouver on August 7, 1894, and lived at Central Park. Family moved to Steveston in the early 1900s, his father worked for Joe Steves looking after his cattle. They lived on No. 9 Road (now known as Steveston Highway), and went to school in Steveston. The biggest business in those days in Steveston was the canning industry in summer time. Remembers sailing vessels that used to come into the canneries in the early 1900s. Names canneries and locations. Started at cannery when 14 years old, counting fish. Kept track of different kinds of fish caught. Mostly sockeye salmon; they used to go up the river so thick that you could see them swimming along the wharf. Worked in the Gulf of Georgia Cannery in 1914 as a tally man and worked the Iron Chink. There were thousands of fish going by and the fishermen fished right outside the cannery door. Tells story of belonging to the militia in 1914. Steveston had several hotels and they all flourished in the summer when over 10,000 fishermen came to town. Also, there were seven or eight thousand Indians who lived in huts along the riverbanks. Very few Japanese people then, their numbers were just increasing. The Indians did most of the cannery work then. Describes canning by hand. Chinese would do the cans: put them through the solder machine, tap all the cans, seal them and label them. Made all the cans in the cannery. Describes canning process and steam boxes. Most of the fish went to England in those days. There were only about 4 or 5 white men working in the cannery in those days. Discusses the prices of fish and wages. Discusses the coming of gas engines, with the Japanese taking to them quickly. Chinese population swelled to 10-15 thousand in the summer. When the canneries started buying their cans and using better machinery, the population of the Chinese decreased. Enjoyed working at the cannery in the early 1900s. Poor sanitation and working conditions. Social activities in Steveston in those days.