The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1900-01-12
Fish must have a Chance.

iAouo " iuihS VII WHAT snail constitute
a river under the fisheries laws which
prohibit trap fishing within three
miles OF any river emptying in the
Sound. The law is held to cover any
stream where the rising of the tide
enables fish to ascend for the purpose
OF spawning. Selners, under this rul-
ing and the law, are also barred from
drifting within mile from the mouth
or river.
There has been great deal of in
qulry among fishing men regarding
the meaning of the act in this regard
They were not agreed on what should
constitute river, some holding small
Ter streams were not intended to be
covered. AS there are good runs OF
fish on the Sound near several small
streams, trap men naturally sought to
obtain ruling which would enable
them to fish the locations.
The general fisheries bill of 1899
provides explicitly that ait shall be un-
lawful hereafter to use any purse net
or other like seine within three miles
aud drag seine within one mile from
the mouth of any of said rivers or
within said rivers" This is in q Sec
tion specifying the rivers of Puget
Sound and Puget Sound described by
Ballinger's code as call that portion of
the tide waters emptying into the
Straits of Fuca and the bays and es-
tuaries thereof"
This question in regard to the con-
struction of the act regarding rivers
came up few days ago when some
trap men desired to use new locations.
The fisheries department. placed the
strictest construction on the statute,
though the one it seemed to the COM
missioner that was correct, in order to
give salmon the greatest protection.
There are several small streams which
would not be designated as rivers even
under this construction of the law,
but in general the ruling protects
most Of the rivers of the state.
Trap men have paid in large share
of the licenses this year, but collections
from other sources have exceeded ex-
pectations. The individual license fee
system has resulted in the collection
of the 81 fee from a majority of the
men employed in the business. AS
this is new feature of the fish license
system the fisheries department. is we'll
satisfied with the result.
All the new fish hatoheries are do
ing we'll and are getting in more eggs
than the commissioner had anticipat-
ed. The catches of fish have been re-
markably good and few eggs have been
lost. The report of the Oregon fish
commissioner incidentally mentions
the fish hatcheries OF this state on the
Columbia river, giving them credit for
nineteen million eggs. This is prob
ably an underestimate. At the Wen=
atchee hatchery seven aillion eggs
have been obtained. The Wind river
hatchery will have about half that
number. No recent reports have come
from the Little Spokane. which is just
about completed, but it is expected
the work of the hatchery men in
catching fish earlier in the season will
result in giving the Little Spokane
hatchery a good output. All these are
new hatcheries on tributaries of the
Columbia,
Of the now Sound hatcheries, the
one on the Skokomish has obtained
several million eggs, the Nooksack will
have about eight million and the
Samish, which has capacity of three
million, is comfortably filed, The
snohomish hatchery is nearing COM
pletian and will probably not turn out
any fish this year. No reports have
been made from the Willapa hatchery.
The Kalama hatchery On the Column
bia, now has over Ave million eggs and
the Chinook has but two million. The
great difficulties in fishing at the
Chinook hatchery are Fespansible for
this fact. There are no figures from
the ehehalis hatchery, bat the work
there has progressed moro favorably
than it did last year. Fishing at all
the hatcheries has ceased for this year.
Canned salmon are holding q high
place in the market. The prices are
better now than they have been at
any time during the year and much
better than last year. Quotations
have been made as high as $4.75 case
and at this figure the output of the
Sound alone tor the season would net
over four million dollars. Complete
returns Of the output have not yet
been received by the fish commission
er, but the canneries will have canned
about 90O, 900 cases. The total May
even be larger than tRis.-AsdgeF.