The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1900-09-27
SALMON DECREASING.

SALMON DECREASING.
necoming Scarce I'm British Rfvers--In-
quiry as to Causes OF Dininutlon.
British fish dealers as we'll as British
anglers have been alarmed at the diminu-
ZION Of the catch of salmon in British
rivers. They have petitioned the board
OF trade to investigate the causes of the
decrease Of the salmon, and to find some
method for increasing the supply, and a
royal commission has been appointed to
look into the matter. This step not with
out reason excites the fears of Mr.. Horace
Hutchinson. for the royal commissions,
like the mills of the gods, grind slowly.
and the results are often exceedingly
small. He thinks the salmon may be-
come extinct before the royal commissi on
gets ready to report, and in an article in
the Fortnightly Review, suggests steps
that may be taken at once to preserve the
fish for Britain.
The decrease of the salmon is admitted
on all sides, but there is a divergence of
views about the cause, turning naturally
on the opposing interests Of the people
affected. Those who supply the mark let
by netting the fish ascribe the deficiency
TO the caprice of the salmon, which runs
In greater numbers sOme years than il
does in others, and for its whims they
seek reasons in conditions in the ocean
and not in the rivers, as, for instance, the
prevalence or scarcity Of herring, or un-
usual prevalence of icebergs. They hold
that if they did not net the fish it would
be lost to man on its return to the deep
sea. The rod fishers of the upper salmon
streams. on the other hand, are agreed
that the fish is being exterminated by the
greed Of the meters at the river mouths,
who will not spare the salmon even when
It seeks its breeding grounds. This is
Mr.. HutchinsOn's opinion too, though he
admit that netting within proper limits is
an absolute necessity il salmon is to con-
tinue as staple food for Great Britain.
He brings together many facts, some not
known, in support of his prop
oSitiOn.
The salmon is, in the first place, a fish
OF eminently regular habiIs. 1t is no
vagrant, but returns year after year to
its own river to breed. This is shown by
the fact that mark ed salmon have been
found repeatedly in the rivers where they
were first caught, while no such salmon
h IS ever been taken in a different river.
The salmon, moreover, enters fresh water
rivers for the sole purpose of spawning,
and during that process fasts the whole
time. DIR. Kingston Barton, who has
made searching investigation of the
salmOn's stomach, finds that the catarrh
which has been noted in fish found in
fresh water is due entirely to decOmposi-
ton after death and occurs as well in fish
coming straight from the sea. In fresE-
ly killed fish there is 10 trace of it. Food
is rarely found in the intestines ofsalmon
caught in fresh water, whereas the fish
just i'm from the feeding grounds has its
stomach gorged, usually with herring,
the salmon's natural food. 1t is so yora-
cious that if it feed in fresh water it would
exterminate very soon the samlet and
fresh trout in the stream. The royal
must study the herring,
too, before 1t will find out what ails the
DR.. Heincke, of Helgoland, who studied
the herring, says that they move about in
great shoals, coming in-shore to breed
and going to deep water to feed, but each
shoal keeps its own grounds for breeding
and feeding purposes. Some. shoals de-
post their eggs in the spring and some in
the autumn. Most probably the salmon
follow the herring, which would account
for the spring and autumn runs of the
salmon, and it may be that the same
,al,non stick steadily to the same shoal of
herring. At any rate, they come to the
Only when there is plenty of
fish, and after they are well fed, if there
is water enough in the rivers, they work
their way up to the headwaters. DIR.
Bart ~, after examining the irisitieS of
,ish at all seasons of the year, asserts that
the ovaries and iiiit are invariably small
in February, but increase each month
and that the late autumn is the sainon's
natural spawning. season. This leads to
Mr.. HutchinsoH's remedy, namely, q
close season for sal;noa, beginning with
the autumn ran, period when the fish is
poor to the taste and the salmon is be-
sides hard to Keep. He would also have
the destruction of kelts or samlets forbid
den. and shows that thess infant salmon
do not prey upon small fish; he would
also have restrictions put upon the cap
ture of the grilse, the young salmon from
the sea.
In the artificial propagation of salmon,
Mr.. Hutchinson has little faith. He re-
fers to unsuccessful experiments in Great
Britain, and dismisses the achievements
of the United States fish commission
rather cavalierly, on the ground that the
American salmon is not the salmon of
the British Isles. His plea is for haste.
Even though artificial propagation is sue
cessful it takes years to bring a salmon to
and the destructive processes
of nature are such that fro I'M 100000 eggs
Matched. only one full grown
fish may survive. Meanwhile, the net
ters are destroying more fish than nature
and the fish commissioners can produce,
and he sees the extinction of the salmon,
except as rarity, in the near future.
Mr.. Hutchinson may take too gloomy
view of the salmon question:, but the
danger he points out is real. The exam
pie Of the fir seal and the buffalo shows
how quickly blind commercial greed can
get the better of natures power of repro
duction. The endangering of the exist
ence of the British salmon by the noting
may serve as a needed warning
to the Gamers of tie Pacific coast. who
are destroying recklessly what would be
source of food. The salmon
catch in Oregon and British Columbia is
reported to be /, OO0, 600 cases less than last
years catch, a deficiency that may be re-
duced if Alaska does as well as last sea-
son. At best the worlds supply this year
will be only 2, 400, 600 cases instead of tho
3, loo, coo cases in 1899, which were ell con-
umed.-New York Sun.
United States ut Paris.