Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1915-02-22
Situation is a
Menace to Fish

SOhh'AiIbSOO Oh llSu6TlGS
at Salem by Walter F. Backus of
Portland.
Twenty years ago the Clackamas
river had a heavy. run of spring Chi
nook salmon. These fish we're a dis
tinct variety, and fishermen on the
lower rivers could readily distinguish
them from the regular Columbia
river run. They came early in the
season and ascended the Clackamas
river to its very source. They were
a hardy lot of fish, very heavy for
their length, and of the finest quail
ity.
For many years the net fishermen
pursued these fish in the Clackamas
without mercy and with no thought
of closed season. They commenced
fishing when the fish first made
their appearance in the river and
kept it up until the run was over for
the season.
Nature has provided certain bal
ance for all things, and it is evident
that salmon in fresh water were
meant to reproduce themselves. If
10000 adult fish spawn in certain
stream, it means that approximately
the same number will return to the
same stream four years later.
Although each female fish deposits
between two and three thousand
eggs, the loss is almost unbelievable.
Vast quantities of eggs are eaten by
the numbers of troust which are al
ways hanging around the spawning
beds. A great percentage of the eggs
are not thoroughly fertilized, and,
after Matching, the helpless young
fish furnish food for many large
trout
The fact that in former times the
run was about the same each year
shows conclusively that the vast
amount of eggs deposited on spawn
ing beds did not result in any in
crease of fish. Naturally there was
gradual decrease in the run of
Clackamas chinook.
About twelve years ago the United
States Bureau of Fisheries estab-
lished a salmon hatchery sixty miles
up the Clackamas river, in the hopes
of partially restoring the salmon run,
but the heavy net fishing on the low
er river prevented all but few fish
from reaching it. Furthermore, un-
der the system then in force at the
hatchery, the small fish were liber-
ated while still retaining their yoke
sacks. In this helpless condition the
Dolly Warden trout took care of most
of the baby salmon, so that the hatch
ery's work helped but very little, and
the salmon run in the Clackamas
continued to dwindle year by year.
About eight years ago a law was
passed by the legislature closing the
Clackamas river entirely to net fish
| ing for salmon, but this law was a
| joke. Fishermen deliberately violat-
ed the statute and openly boasted
that no conviction for illegal fishing
could be obtained in their county.
| They must have known what they
were talking about, because the few
cases brought to court were dis
missed on some pretext, and almost
as many fish were taken as during
the former open season.
Two years later, through the ef-
forts of George c. Brownell the leg
islature again opened the Clackamas
to net fishing. Once more the net
men, who were now more numerous
than ever, proceeded to drag out
nearly every salmon which entered
the river. Boats were hauled up the
river twenty miles in order to do a
thorough job on the way down.
Each year the run grew lighter,
and many fishermen gave up the
work, remarking in disgust that the
river was fished out. The hatchery
was moved down the river thirty
miles in the hopes of getting some
seed fish in the lower region.
Then three years ago the river
was again closed to net fishing by
order of the State Fish and Game
Commission. Five years earlier such
an action would have aroused a storm
of protest from the Clackamas coun-
ty net fishermen, but at this time
there was no opposal. Why? Be-
cause there was nothing to fight for
the salmon were gone, and to show
how thoroughly they had been
cleaned out, l will mention an in
stance:
In June / visited the government
hatchery, which is now located on
the Columbia at River Mills station.
The man in charge had been waiting
since early April for the chinook sal
mon to reach his racks, but at the
time of my visit he had about seventy
fish in sight. These seventy fish
were all that reached the station the