The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1898-12-09
The Fish Trap Side.


lition of the fish traps. While l agree
with you in deploring their destruct-
ion must beg to differ in regard to
the means to be employed to restore
the salmon.
| Having been in the business for the
whole fishing season and through my
position having an opportunity OF be-
ing intimate with every kind of fish
erman l made it point to get the
views of every class from Gamer. pro-
prietor to the gill net fisherman.
The cannery man says; Without the
fish trap Puget Sound cannot COM
pete with British Columbia, Alaska or
the Columbia river. Briefly these are
my reasons; To make canning profit
able we must have a regular and cheap
supply of fish. Allowing, for the sake
of argument, that the purse seines
and gill nets can supply us regularly,
in good weather, the moment a storm
arises they get TO camp as quickly as
possible and thereafter till the storm
abates, my four or five steamers, cost
ing from one to two hundred dollars a
day bring in no fish. So shut down
the cannery till the weather is good,
throwing my crew out of employment.
The trap on the other hand fishes
right along and my supply is regular.
In my experience never knew the
traps to catch too many fish for the
canneries in any season but for
the season of '97. Then the waste
was immense but it was still greater
on the Frazer River where traps are
absolutely prohibited. 1 tell you
plainly if the traps are abolished that
four fii:hs of the canneries will not
start up next year and will remain
closed until people realize the injury
done the state. 1t is really better to
close the canneries than the traps for
the latter sell all of their catch to the
former l am willing to have my Ii
cense doubled Or trebled and will use
every effort to have the number of
hatcheries increased, for in them only
n f,,f l,o
most vital interest in the propaga-
ton OF the salmon and the people may
be sure we are not foolish enough to
destroy our source of income"
Those are the condensed opinions
of ten cannery men have interviewed
and [ believe that instead of "making
millions out of the poor fisherman
those ten will this year between them
lose over 100000. One concern l
worked for failed few days ago and
am informed lost $4,000 alone.
Next interviewed the trap men
and here are the combined views of
twenty of them: -
"The king of Puget Sound salmon is
the "Sockeye" and for him the trap is
set. The other salmon are so late and
are so hard to catch in traps generally
That it is not profitable to leave our
web in the water So we take up our
traps in September. Abolish the
traps? Well why not abolish every
continuance which helps the business
OF the country. Just because the peo-
pie know nothing about their opera
ton they are aroused by the howl of
the British Columbia Gamers. through
the fishermen who work for their in
terests, against this state, into con-
demning us unheard. If those people
who pretend to have the interest of
the fishing at heart would only inves-
tigate the thing little instead of tax
ing the word of any one who chooses
to abuse us we would feel better. The
fish traps give more employment to
labor than ony other class of fishing
Where do we get our piles 200 to 800
In every trap and nearly 200 traps.
Does that money help Washington
woodsmen? Who drives those piles
but Washington workmen to the tune
OF about fifty piledriving crews? II
takes crew OF eight men to operate a
trap and multiplying that by 2O(
gives some slight idea of what the trar
business amounts to. Our web is an
other important item for / have alone
ordered $4,000 worth to fit up three
traps for next season. If the traps arc
abolished / stand to Jose, that. Oh yes
we are an injury to the state and
should be done away with by al
means. Another absurd proposition
is that we catch all the fish. NY one
trap this year did not catch 5000 fish
and that after an outlay of $4,000
while can show you purse seines tha1
caught three and even four times a,
many. Every third fish trap has 8
steamer in attendance at a cost O
from $500 to $1,000 per month be
sides"
I So much for the trap man and {
more disguised set than they are thi,