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

be good thing to prevent the traps
catching the smaller salmon. Every
fisherman should be required by law
to hang up his gear Of whatever kind
Saturday night and keep it there till
Sunday night thus giving the fish at
least one day to school up in. The
legislature should offer premium on
salmon trout instead of so foolishlY
protecting the salmon's greatest en-
envy for the benefit of few would be
sportsmer ;"
afterwards saw the beach selners
who said:
ave do not fish for the sockeye and
the traps don't catch the kind we do
t. any great extent but if you want
my opinion on fish legislation | think
our license is too damned high" !
agreed with him and tackled the gill
METER. They are very numerous but
divided in opinion.
MANY saw evils in the trap system
and many did not but I noticed that
those most opposed to the trap were
those who went to the Fraser River to
fish. Many deplore the fact that the
fishing in the rive was being so flag
rantly abused but admitted doing the
same thing because they deserved to
share in the results as much as the
others. Many of them stated it was
impossible to catch the sockeye in gill
nets IN Puget Sound but abused the
traps because they prevented the fish
going to the Fraser. As an American
| feel pleased rather than other wise
to think that yankee ingenuity" has
devised scheme whereby we are able
to capture fish bound for foreign
land it that land does happen to belong
to "our cousins over the water" and /
believe every American will agree with
me. If it is impossible to capture the
fish in any other way, in paying guam
titles, why trap them and keep the
money at home rather than send it to
a foreign country.
The silver and dog salmon do not
begin running until September when
the operation of pulling out the traps
has generally begun. Almost all the
traps are north Of WILDLY Island
while the late salmon come through
the Straits and around the south end
OF the island, thus evidencing some
other cause besides traps at work in
destroying the fall fish. After ten
years of trap fishing for the sockeyes,
however, they we're more numerous in
1897 than ever before. The only way
this can be explained is that the Brit
ish Columbia authorities have paid a
great deal of attention to hatcheries
and have been perpetuating them in
that way.
Salmon return to their spawning
grounds every four years and if as you
say the waters were teeming with them
three years ago we may reasonably ex-
pect them to TEEN next year. I do
not expect so, however, because we
have made no efforts to propagate
them and the supply will naturally
run out no matter how they are
caught.
You speak rather contemptuously
OF the hair',erles and their few paltry
millions u; spawn, preferring the
natural means of propagation. In
tbs Oh Il fer from all known authori
tics who have discovered that IS per
cent of the eggs artifcially patched
produce young salmon, while but five
per cent results from leaving the sal
mon to themselves. Our cannerymen
realize this and have built one hatch
cry themselves. Our fish commission
er also realizes it and will recommend
that five or six more hatcheries be
built. Imagine ten hatcheries each
turning out lis "few paltry millions. /"
In few years ve would have over fifty
millions of salmon returning annually,
an amount so vast that the canneries
on Puget Sound could not at their full
capacity pack halt Of them in a six
months season.
Our fish commissioner is anxious to
have those interested in the fisheries
pay the hatcheries a visit and is espec-
tally anxious that the members of the
coming legislature do SO that they
may get an idea of what is being done
already and may act intelligently on
matter requiring sc much study.
am sorry our represen tative is
pledged to, in my opinion, destroy the
greatest industry of the state and I
find more than half the fishermen
coincide with me. Yours truly,
III. E. McREAyY,