The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1895-02-01
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY l, 1895
CONCERNING SALMON.


salmon abolished but theirs. For the
past twelve years, or since fish wheels
were introduced on the upper Columbia,
the cry of the Fishermen's Union of As
toria has been the same, viz: ''We
want the whole river, and must have it,
as we have it in our voting power to
send senators and representatives to the
legislature who are pledged TO have such
laws enacted.
1t is a well-known fact that fish
wheels can only be placed close up to
river bank, with a catching capacity OF
six or seven feet wide, at most, while a
single gill net is about 300 feet long
and about 40 feet deep. With about
1900 of those nets on the bar, it seems
that a salmon can work
through and reach the upper river at
ali, and it is a well-known fact that the
gill net fishermen would rather thous-
and fish would be kept outside the bar
than allow one to get in and pass them,
which is seldom done when they are all
out together, only in the wake of a pass
ing vessel, The ffty-fathom gill nets,
used some twelve years ago by the fish
ermen on the lower river, are called
pocket handkerchIefs now, so intent are
they to prevent single fish escaping
them. Yes, if fish wheels could be used
on the lower river there would be no
other appliance thought of, as it is the
cheapest, as well as the most humane
mode of fishing ever invented; but
there are only few localities where fish
wheels can be operated, even on the
Columbiasriver, which is about the only
one in the United States where salmon
1un and wheels can be used for fishing
purposes.
There is another thing, Mr.. Editor, 1
would call your attention to, viz, the
close and open season for salmon fishing.
Since the distance from Astoria, where
no fishing should be allowed below, is
about 200 miles from The Dalles, and it
takes salmon at least two months to
come that distance, wouldn't it be only
Justice for our Eastern Oregon represen-
tatives to introduce a bill giving six
months open and six months close sea-
son? This certainly will give salmon a
chance to get to their spawning grounds
unmolested; besides giving every part
of the river an equal chance to get some
fish in the fishing season, instead of the
lower river fishing the whole year, ex-
cept from March 1st to April 10th and
August 10th to September 10th, or, in
other words, about two months in the
nlncn fn fhor1 hi1o &c
known that no salmon can be caught
above the mouth of the Willamette after
November each year, and very few after
Octorber 1st.
1 see notices occasionally in the Port
land Oregonian where the Hon. Mar
shal Mcdonald, U. S. fish commissioner,
says that unless the legislatures of Ore
gon and Washington do something to
protect the salmon in the Columbia,
that he will not advocate any United
States aid in the way of hatcheries, ETC.,
etc. Since Mr.. Mcdonald seems to take
so much interest in the welfare of this
river and the fishing industry generally,
excepting the method of catching fish
with fish wheels, by whose authority
were carp and catfish placed in this
river about five or six years ago? and
If he knew at the time, as well as every
body interested in fishing, that carp and
catfish are the greatest scavengers
known to the finny tribe? They will
destroy more young fish than thousand
hatcherles could possibly turn out; be-
sides they are useless as a food fish.
Whoever introduced those fish scaven-
gers into our river, whether through ig-
norance, or for the purpose of appearing
to do something, to hold down sine
cure Office, ought to be held under water
until the last cat and carp is gotten out.
Then, with no fishing allowed below
Astoria, and the open season to COM
mence on May 1st and end on October
31st, and instead of hatcheries and sine
cure Offices (Which means drawing their
breath and salary expend all such
funds in killing off the seals and sea-
lions, which destroy almost as many old
salmon as the carp and catfish do the
young, which in either case is more
than all the canneries and all others
catching fish on this river could handle.
The seals and sealions can be killed off
in time, but no earthly power can de-
stroy the carp and catfish.
A FISHERMAN