Iditarod pioneer., 1917-05-26
FISHERIES OF ALASKA
 IN DANGER OF DEPLETION

seems to be gaining ground that the mar vicious fisheries of Alaska are in danger of depletion. James Robertson, general man. ager of the Tenakee Fisheries Company, is strong advocate of protection of fish in Southeastern Alaska, and to the Juneau Dispatch he said recently:
 Prom observations made during 2 close association with the cannery business for the last twelve years in Alaska, believe it to be unquestionably true that the salmon packers will soon face fish shortage that will not only prove serious but absolutely runous to many of them and demoralzlng as a whole
 q believe it also to be unquestionably true that many of the cannerymen are now not only careless and indifferent in ther at titude toward the obeying of laws, but de lberately break them in their made scramble to fill the cans.
 "In any season that the supply of fish IS at all scarce, and every season during the periods preliminary and subsequent to the heavy run, most packers encourage their ;einers to fish on Sundays and to go up nto the streams The idea Is to get the fish, regardless of law or the fitness of the fish for food
 Such practices are utterly unsound from business standpoint, and penallze the hon est canneryman to the point of ruin. Un- less the quality of the fish is extremely bad no difference is made in price between the lear, bright product of trap that has oeen operated out in the main channels, and the thin, black skinned, bony wreckS that have been chased cut of the grass on the banks of some stream where they were spawning 4 man may put up 8 pack of ue latter during poor season, while his competitcr who refuses to break the law comes home with short pack.
 If such conditions are allowed to con tinue, the canned salmon business is no business for seIf-respectlng man to en- gage in,
 It Is a notorious fact that organization fer mutual benefit has never been howl ing success among salmon packers, although at present some good woIk Is being done along this line.
 "The writer'beleves that the evils under which we now labor should not be made to await correction from the slow and un- certain action of any organization, and l know of several cannerymen who feel strongly regarding the practice of sending seine crews up the streams after fish; so strongly, in fact, that they intend to inde- 9endently secure evidence against such crews and to press prosecution to the limit next season. This may work hardship upon some packer whose crews have dis obeyed the laws in spite of his instructions; but tat is his trouble
 "The writer believes that the percentage ot return from the egg deposit of salmon .s entirely too small. It will continue to be very small until some way is found to eliminate the trout and sea gullS, But there are other easy, practical ways to help. Most streams in Southeastern Alaska are so choked and damned with brush and w:ndfas that thousands of fish are unable 10 reach suitable spawning grounds.
 If each packer or cannery superintendent would undertake to clear out the mouths of the creeks in the vicinity of his canncry and to do what he could to render the ascent of the salmon more easy, and to roughly construct some pools and basins suitable for spawning the number of ma tured fry could be increased by millions.
 But many superintendents and owners maintain that it would not be just for them to bear the expense of improving sev- eral streams for the benefit of anyone who oared to come along and fish in this vicinity If the government would give me an ex- elusive concession etc. they urge.
 Exclusive government concessions are a very remote possibility. although such a method is probably the only sound way to deal with an industry in which the raw material is so limited So it seems that the only way for anything to be accom- plshed along this line is for each canner to do his bit and stand the gaff little if t is necessary.
 Another source of serious anxiety to the cannerymen is the trap situation The de cisons of Judge Jennings last summer made it plain that any enterprslng pirate could take a couple of piledrivers North early in the spring and utterly ruin several com panes whose business amounting to mil liens, is dependent on traps; companies which have paid thousands of dollars into the public treasuries for the privilege of operating The territory of Alaska exacts a fee of s100 annually for operating a fish trap. In return the canner receives abso- lutely nothing neither title nor protection. Such situation is intoerable.
 Some people advocate the entire aboh ton of fish traps. This movement has con- siderable support. Such movement and .ts support cannot possibly arise from an unpreiudiced and unselfsh source as it is obvious to anyone who cares to inquire into the matter that trap fish are in every way superior to seine fish, due both to their being caught mostly in main channels where the fish are fresher from the ocean and also to the process through which the fish must go from the water to the butcher room. No one seriously advocates the abo- lition of seines.
 From the present inert and deadlocked h%%%1HN%%s~%<>>%~~N~%$<~%%