The Alaska daily empire., 1913-04-10

filing, and the names of the occu- pants or claimants on whose behalf the maps are filed; all of such data must be indorsed on the respective maps when filed: but no informality or omission on the part of any such public officer shall impair or preju- dice the rights of any occupant or claimant of or to any such fishing site.
 From and after the location or any such trap site the claimant thereof and his heirs. executors, administra- COTS. successors, and assigns shall have the exclusive right to occupy, maintain, and fish the same; to re- new the license therefor year by year until abandoned or forfeited; to mort gage, sell, and transfer such rights during such time as he or they shall comply with the laws of the United States pertaining therto
 Every person being the prior occu- pant of in lawful possession of one or more fish trap sites or fishing To- cations when this Act takes effect shall have the preference right until the thirty.first day of December of the next succeeding calendar year fol- lowing the date of the passage of this act within which to perfect possess ory rights to such location or locations under the provisions of this Act by marking, surveying, and filing the maps with the Secretary of Commerce and Labor as herein provided. Where surveys show adjacent fish traps which have been operated in the last preceding calendar year to have been within the prohibited distances of one thousand eight hundred feet laterally and three hundred feet endwise from each other, as prescribed by this Act that location which has had the long est continuous period of occupation for fishing from season to season shall have precedence, and the junior location must give way, No trap site shall be located so as to encroach up- on the prohibited distances from any existing trap or occupied trap site then lawfully held by another, Loca- tions of fishing sites hitherto un- claimed or abandoned or forfeited shall prevail in the order of location.
 All conflicting claims to trap sites shall be determined by the Secretary of Commerce and Labor, Provided, That the time for filing the map of any contested trap site with the Sec retary of Commerce and Labor and in any other public office where the same may be required to be filed shall be extended equal to the per iod of time ebtween the date of commencement of any contest and the date of final decision therein.
 Failure for a continuous period of two consecutive years to construct and operate a bona fide fish trap upon any located trap site, or failure to apply for renewal of the license therefor, either before or within three months after the expiration of any ex- isting license therefor, shall work an abandonment and forfeiture of such trap site, and shall preclude the de faulting claimant from relocating the same within a period of two years.
 It shall be unlawful to locate any trap site except for the bona fide pur- pose of constructing an effective fish trap thereon.
 No bent or recurved end, commonly called a "jigger", directed or turned toward the opening of the trap, of more than one hundred and fifty feet in length, shall be attached to any trap in Alaska.
 No false or ficticious fish trap or other fishing appliance not intended as an effective device for catching fish shall be maintained in any of the waters of Alaska.
 During the fishing season each fish trap shall have affixed therto con- spicuous notice bearing the license number and the name of the licensee.
 Nothing herein contained shall be deemed or constructed to give to the locator or holder of any fish trap site any title other than possessory ribht of occupation or easement for fishing purposes, subject to termina- tion by forfeiture, abandonment, or operation of law
 Sec. 3. That it shall be unlawful to erect or maintain any dam, barri- cade, fence. fish trap, net, or other fixed or stationary obstruction, ex- cept for the purposes of fish culture or scientific investigation, under the direction or with the approval of the Secretary of Commerce and La bor in any of the waters of Alaska at any point where the distance from shore to shore is less than five hun dred feet, or within any salmon stream at or above any point where the same is less than five hundred feet in width. or within six hundred yards of the mouth of any red-salmon stream, or within one hundred yards of the mouth of any other salmon stream where the same is less than
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