Fishing has been a fundamental part of the life of Fidalgo Island inhabitants from time immemorial. The harvest of seafood by the Samish and Swinomish tribes, for sustenance and trade, continued with the arrival of European and American settlers in the mid-nineteenth century. Anacortes’ fishing industry grew rapidly in the 1890s with the establishment of canneries built to process cod, clams and salmon. Salmon were caught using a variety of methods, including cannery-owned fish traps, reef nets, gill nets, trollers, and the definitive purse seine vessels that often were built right here in Anacortes.