The morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1899-1930, 1908-02-25
with extinction. have come forward

fishing at head OF tide, at the contlu
ence OF the Columbia River with tn
| Sandy--a bill fathered by these pu
lie spirited citizens-is opposed thi
sham bill OF the hshwheel owners
The fishwheel owners were too eau
tious-though it is alleged the propel
term is too cowardly"-to fathel
their bill, so they hired a discarded
deputy of the State Fishery Burea,
to champion a bill which is trick
bill from top to bottom.
Now as to the tricks in that bill.
In the argument supporting the
wheel owners bill a desire is express
ed to save our salmon.
But true to the methods OF trickery,
section 1.-The main section--is not
taken up FIRST. Instead, sections 3 and
are defended and section 1.-The big
gest niger in this Legislative wood
pile-is sandwiched in between sec
tions 2 and 5.
That trick, however, is very clumsy
and can be easily exposed.
Section | of the hshwheel owners
bill provides that no fishing at nights
can be carried on in the channels used
i for commercial navigation.
That means that the four thousand
net fishermen OF the Columbia, with
an investment OF about one and half
million dollars in boats and nets must
quit the Columbia if the law passes.
The fshwheel owners and Webster
know this full well, hence they tried
to hide this section in their argument,
/ hoping to thus fool the voters of the
State.
To explain: Fishwheels or FISH
traps are located on the banks OF the
river, or in narrows or at falls, where
they presumably do not interfere
with navigation. Wheels and traps
are stationary appliances and before
they can be erected must secure a
permit from the War Department, in
charge of navigation of our rivers.
Thus, under this section traps and
| wheels could fish the entire "a hours.
Traps and wheels are built more or
less upon the principle OF cattle
corral, the fish striking fences or
leads projecting into the river, follow
them and are lead into the tunnel
of the trap and then into the pot,
from which they cannot escape. The
fence or lead OF the fishwheel leads
the fish into the mouth of the wheel,
when the wheel ceaselessly turning
with the aid OF the flowing, stream,
pumps the salmon into box, for the
owner to take away once in every "a
hours.
F.; The gill nets, however, against
| which this section is directed, are
drifting nets, on submerged sand
bar one moment, in the channel the
next. They catch fish by gilling them,
that is the salmon strike the net and
put their heads into mesh, when
they cannot retreat, their gills pre-
venting retreat and their bodies being
too large to allow them to get through
the mesh. Salmon only gill when the
water is muddy in freshet time or at
nights. When the salmon can see
the gill net they swim around it. A
gill net is only fshed at slack tides,
on an average six hours out OF every
"a hours. A gill net further, to be
worked properly must be tanned once
week and dried, which takes from
one to two days. Thus gill net
fishes only from 80 to SO hours out
of the l68 hours Of every week, while
the traps and wheels, stationary ap-
pliances, fish day and night, the entire
l68 hours in every week, as long as
the fishing season lasts.
! Thus this section would drive 1000
of our gill net fishermen from their
calling, destroy their property and
make in few years a dozen or SO
already very rich fshwheel owners
manifold millionaires, without pro.
tecting our salmon, because the fish
wheels in the rlarrows and at the falls