Iditarod pioneer., 1915-03-20
FISHERMEN CALL ATTENTION
 TO THREATENED DANGER

The Southeastern Alaska Fishermen's Association, bitterly opposed to fish traps, issues the following statement of its claims:
 ''Fish traps should be prohibited because they are rapidly exterminating millions of valuable food fsh-the common property of all the peonle of the United States By their use few people, or corporations, mo- nopolize and Wantonly destroy this fcod provision of nature, regardless of the future,
 3 gratify their desire to grab all they can in the shortest possible time They unhesitatingly spend thousands of dollars to prevent legislation which would protect the fisheries of Alaska from their destruc- tive greed. For the past seven years, be- cause of the use of fish traps, the abundant supply of salmon in Alaskan waters has become so depleted that unless the con- gress of the United States immediately makes and enforces necessary laws for its preservation the salmon will be a thing of and usually stand thirty feet above the the people forever.
 There are two kinds of traps, stationary and floating, both equally destructive to the fish. The floating traps can be moved from place to place by towboats of sufh- cient power The superintendent of one of the largest canneries in Alaska has a patent on the floating traps by which he collects a royalty of several hundred dollars season on each trap.
 "The piles of the stationary trap are driven as deep as necessary to be secure, and usually stand thirt yfeet above the bottom of the sea-about two feet above high water mark They extend from the shore as far out into the water as the fish are known to run, so they prevent any fish from passing them and reaching their spawning grounds Traps fish steadily night and day and catch all kinds of fish none of which are desired by the salmon can neries but salmon so millions of dead fish are thrown back into the water every sea son when the scows are unloaded at the canneries For this reason alone, if for no other traps should be prohibited. After the fish are taken from the traps they die in fifteen minutes, hours before they reach the canneries Trap owners state that trap fish are fresher than seine fish. The law requires that fish becann ed not later than forty-eight hours after being taken from the water several hours, because until they have been it is hard to put them through the machinery used in canning; neither are they as easily cooked.
 There is no waste in seine fishing be- cause the fishermen only set thelr selnes when they see a school of salmon jumping, fnning or massing in the water. On rare occasions when few fish of other varieties are caught with the salmon they are al ways in the bottom of the seine, and the fishermen turn them back alive into the water after brailing out the salmon.
 "The average fall from high water to low water is fifteen feet When trap IS full of fish, as soon as the tide falls the weight of those on top smothers those un- derneath the skin is worn off to the flesh and the entrails are forced out. In thelr intellectual attempts to get out they often wear their noses of beating them against the web or wire Some varieties die ot fright when trapped Many traps hold from 3OOOO to 600,000 at one time. In the summer of 1913 the traps caught so many fish that even the canneries, whose capacity is 254OOO and 5000 cans day, could rot use them, which caused a frlghtful waste of food fish. Traps are a menace to navl- gation, a great danger to small boats when the fishing season is over, as no lights are kept upon them:
 Traps have to be reconstructed every season, so their abolishment would not be m investment loss, as their owners falsely claim. @ Also they have no right to place them in Alaska waters, as the United States navigation laws and the Alaska Code. under Transportation,' Section y, definitely for bid it."