Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1904-07-26
THE SALMON IN DEMAND.
WAR IN THE ORIENT MAKES SEA-
SON DoUBLY PROSPEROUS.

oON DOO6Lf r0OSFErtOOS.
Danger to the Supply From the Use
Of Nets-Traps Which Are Said to
Kill Twice as Many as Are Used
by Gamers.
American salmon men, whose sea-
son will begin next month. have been
douDly prospered by the war in the
Far East. Not only have the armies
Of both belligerents been purchasing
vast quantities of American canned
fish. but the Russians nave been pre-
vented from establishing the Siberian
fisheries, with which. before the war,
they had planned to furnish the ST
berian railroad with freight and to
drive out American canned salmon
from the markets of Europe.
However long its execution may be
postponed, Russia's intention. to cap
ture the European trade of American
salmon fishers has nevertheless
aroused this government to decisive
action. Stories have come from
Alaska, whose waters furnish $4,000
600 cans each. year, or one-half the
salmon supply of the world, that the
fish is being slowly but surely exter-
minated because of the reckless meth
DDS of capturing them. As the result
of a government investigation not
long ago Commander Jefferson F..
Moser of the United States Navy re-
ported that the Alaskan salmon fish
cries were doomed unless the trap
nets now so widely used were abolish
ed. A commission was accordingly APP
. pointed by President Roosevelt, with
David Starr Jordan, president of Lee
land Stanford University, as its head,
to report to Congress, in order that
legislation may be secured which will
safeguard the industry.
The trap net is said to kill twice
as many salmon as are utilized by the
Gamers. All the fishermen agree
that the trap net should be abolished,
for the preservation of the business,
but each is afraid to give up his traps
while his neighbors are using them.
Competition is too keen.
A net which would add to the fish
erman's labor, but which would in no
way endanger the industry, is the gill
net, SO called because its meshes are
woven just large enough to catch the
big fish by the gills, while it permits
the smaller ones to escape unhurt.
Government officials believe that by
gill nets salmon can be caught in suf-
ficient quantities to furnish the can
neries with as large a supply as at
present, but with little if any waste.
Such nets will not be used to any
extent, however, until the traps are
abolished by law, as each one of them
requires two men constantly at work
in a boat, rowing up and down the
fence of mesh and picking out the
fish as they become entangled. The
traps, on the other hand, cost little
if anything to maintain, as they work
automatically day and night.
Some of the canneries have already
taken steps to prevent the exhaustion
of their fish supply by building hatch
cries at the head of the streams in
which they spread their nets. What
was once regarded as fable is now
gaining ground as scientific fact,
that a salmon returns to the stream
of its. nativity to breed. 1t is said that
fish born near the sources of a river,
on growing strong and vigorous, swim
out to sea, plough up and down the
ocean for several years, and then on
maturity turn back to breed in their
native river. A rushing tide or pre-
cipitous waterfall does not daunt
them, and it is common sight to
see these fish leaping up cataracts
to gain the quiet pools beyond.
In order to prove the truth of this
theory fishermen have branded young
fish, turned them loose; and say they
have captured them years afterward
in the self-same streams. One of
those who has become convinced of
this faithful characteristic of the sal
mon is John C. Callbreath, of Wran-
CELL, Alaska, who is now Matching out
several million salmon each year in
Burnett and Francis lakes. and then
letting them swim out to sea. Mr.
Callbreath believes that they will all
return. to him after many days.-New
York Tribune.