USFS Scoter

USFS Scoter

USFS Scoter in 1925
United States
Name	Clatsop
Owner	Bristol Bay Packers
Completed	1920
Identification	WTDF[1]
Fate	Sold to U.S. Bureau of Fisheries April 1922
U.S. Bureau of Fisheries
Name	USFS Scoter
Namesake	seaduck in the genus Melanitta
Cost	US$5,000
Acquired	April 1922
Commissioned	April or May 1922
Fate	Transferred to Fish and Wildlife Service 30 June 1940
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Name	US FWS Scoter
Namesake	Previous name retained
Acquired	30 June 1940
Fate	Wrecked 19 September 1949 Salvaged Sold 1950
United States
Name	Clatsop
Namesake	Earlier name restored
Owner	Mr. and Mrs. Don Martin
Acquired	1950
Notes	Extant May 1951
General characteristics (as BOF fishery patrol vessel)
Type	patrol vessel
Tonnage	41 GRT 28 NRT
Length	57 ft (17.4 m) to 65 ft (19.8 m) (sources vary)
Beam	15 ft (4.6 m)
Draft	6.8 ft (2.1 m)
Propulsion	As built: 1 x 50  gasoline engine Winter 1929–1930 or winter 1930–1931 (see text): 1 x 66 hp (49 kW) Washington diesel engine
Speed	1920: 8 miles per hour (13 km/h)

USFS Scoter was an American

U.S. Bureau of Fisheries

Construction and acquisition

The vessel was constructed at

In the 1930s, Scoter undertook patrols near Sitka in Southeast Alaska and Neah Bay on the northern coast of Washington to protect fur seal herds.^[2] Over the winter of 1933–1934, Scoter and the BOF fishery patrol vessel USFS Crane supported a Civil Works Administration-funded project to clear and improve salmon spawning streams in Southeast Alaska,^[2][4] and by 22 February 1934 the 200 temporary employees involved had cleared log jams and other obstructions from a combined total of 802 miles (1,291 km) of waterways in 325 streams.^[4] In 1935, Scoter joined the BOF fishery patrol vessel USFS Kittiwake in an experimental project to tag pink salmon^[2][6] and offer a 25-cent reward to the public for each tag returned to the BOF with information about the time and place the tagged fish had been caught;^[2] the two vessels combined to tag 1,900 fish, and the public returned over a third of the tags.^[2] In the late 1930s, Scoter conducted stream inspections and surveys around the Alaska Peninsula, near Craig in Southeast Alaska, around Prince of Wales Island in the Alexander Archipelago in Southeast Alaska, and around Kodiak on Kodiak Island in the Kodiak Archipelago.^[2]

Fish and Wildlife Service

In 1939, the BOF was transferred from the United States Department of Commerce to the United States Department of the Interior,^[7] and on 30 June 1940, it was merged with the Interior Department's Division of Biological Survey to form the new Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS),^[8] an element of the Interior Department that was destined to become the United States Fish and Wildlife Service in 1956.^[9] The vessel thus became part of the FWS fleet^[2] as US FWS Scoter.

In 1941, Scoter transported framing lumber from Seattle to Naknek, Territory of Alaska, for use in constructing the FWS's Brooks River field laboratory at Brooks Lake on the Alaska Peninsula.^[2] The Brooks River field laboratory operated until 1973, conducting salmon research and management.^[10]

On 19 September 1949, Scoter was wrecked on rocks in Slocum Arm (58°57′N 152°15′W / 58.950°N 152.250°W / 58.950; -152.250 (Slocum Arm)) in Southeast Alaska.^[2][11] She apparently was salvaged, but the Juneau Empire reported in its 9 February 1951 edition that the FWS had "disposed of" Scoter in 1950.^[2]

Later career

The