The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1903-12-17
OPPOSED TO A
JOINT HATCHERY
U. s. FISH COMMISSIONER WRITES
ABOUT sOCKEYE REGULATIONS
Says Traps Are Not rs Destructive of Sal
mon AS fhe Fraser River Gill Nets
Favors a Weekly Closed Period on
Both Sides and More Hatcheries.

George M. Bowers, the United States
fish commissioner, has written letter
to the secretary of commerce in re
sponse to communication from the
state department in reference to the
proposed establishment of an interna-
tional fish hatchery OH the Fraser river.
After briefly Quilting the course taken
by the salmon en- route from the sea to
the Fraser river, their chief natural
spawning graund, and referring to the
rapid depletion of the supply in recent
years as a result of sharp competition,
Mr. Bowers says:
"The sockeye, like all other salmon
of the Pacific coast, spawns but once
and then dies. A sockeye permitted to
ascend stream does not return a sec
ond time, and no further opportunity
to catch it ever comes to any fisher
4 man. If it is not caught it goes to its
spawning ground and dies. The only
object, therefore, in letting the salmon
escape is that it may spawn and per-
petuate the species, and it follows that
there is no useful purpose served in
| letting more salmon escape than are
necessary to maintain the species at its
maximum numbers. To accomplish
this will require very much less breed
ing of fish under artificial methods
than with natural reproduction.
at has been charged that the use of
traps or pound nets in the American
waters of Puget Sound has proven very
destructive to the salmon fisheries, to
the extent that an undue proportion of
the fish are caught before they enter
| British Columbia waters. This charge
is not borne out by the facts. In 1908
there were in operation OH the Ameri
can side ninety-six sockeye tr .ps,
which offered thlrty-fve miles of OBJ
struction to the movements of the sal
mon. On the British Columbia side
there were in and off the mouth of the
mouth of the Fraser river no fewer
than 5000 boats, each provided with
10 fathoms of gill net, making a total
obstruction of 375 miles, or more than
ten times that offered by the American
traps. That these gill nets are effective
and that the British Columbia fisher
men get a fair proportion of the catch,
is shown by the fact that from 1896 to
1908, inclusive, the salmon pack in
British Columbia exceeded that on
Puget Sound by 1885, ,757 cases. Only
twice, 1899 and 1901, in the history OF
salmon canning on Puget Sound, has
the pack equaled that in British Col
umbia.
"The fishery regulations in force on
the respective sides are about equally
adequate. 1t is true that there is no
weekly closed period on ths Washing
ton coast, aud that there is in British
Columbia weekly closed time cover
ing Saturday and Sunday, but it is
claimed that this is not effective for the
reason that Immediately after its ex
piration at p. m. on Sunday the gill
net fishermen begin fishing as far up
the river as possible or profitable, and
drift down towards the mouth, thus
probably catching all the fish that
enter the river during the close perioo
of thirty-six hours. A weekly closed
period should be provided on each side,
but should be so adjusted as to give the
salmon that enter the river at its be-
ginning better chance to escape.
Other regulations and restrictions
should be established after a careful
study of the local conditions.
"Salmon canning began in British
Columbia in 1876, but in Puget Sound
not until 1891. Although the industry
was in progress on the Fraser river
fourteen years before it began on Puget
Sound, comparatively nothing has
been done in British Columbia towards
the artificial propagation of sockeye
salmon. In 1895 the state of Washing
ton established sockeye hatchery at
the head waters of the Skagit, and in
1898 this hatchery was purchased by
the United States goyernment,..w