The weekly Alaska citizen., 1919-09-08
CANNERY CAUSE
 PRESENT GRAVE
 FISH SHORTAGE

You people up here may as well begin to figure on buying your sal mon in cans,,-shipped in to you from the States, for it vii not be long
 before the seasonal run of fish up the rivers of Interior Alaska will be thing of the past, if the cannery near the mouth of the Yukon is permitted to continue operations,
 unrestricted by regulations Thus spoke an oldtime Alaskan to rep resentative of The News upon his arrival, few days ago. from the lower Yukon, where he saw ample evidence of the harm that is being wrought to the salmon industry by
 the floating cannery that is being | operated by the Carlisle Packing
 company at the mouth of Kwiguk slough, on the south mouth of the done during the run of king salmon Yukon river
 So thoroughly was the fishing
 done during the run of king salmon that few of the fish escaped the nets and fish-wheels which filled the stream. from Bering sea to the point where the main river divides.. a short distance below Andreafski. As des- cribed to the News the system
 of fishing is the most efficient imagi
 nable. insuring maximum of salmon for the cannery-and minimum for
 the natives and whites living above the cannery.
 All along the Yukon, and on the side streams, the natives. who de-
 pend largely upon the salmon for a living. were waiting in vain for the | fish to arrive. Their wheels rcvOlved idly in the current and the flshracks
 were as bare as the day they were | erected A few fish escaped the can l neis. it is true, but, like those caught by Nenana fishermen. practically all
 the large ones bore seine marks and
 Were unfit for human consumption AS already explained in these col
 umns, the real menace of the can
 nery is not the present scarcity of fish. but in the future total and per
 manent depletion of the supply-in preventing the fish from returning to
 their spawning grounds on the tribu.
 tares of the Yukon river. At the
 present rate it will not take long to
 fish the Yukon dry"
 The government, declares those
 who know what the conditions are,
 is not giving Alaskans any prOtec- | for wholesale slaughter. The regu-
 lations thus far inaugurated. and as | enforced, it is claimed, are a farce. For instance. it is pointed out,
 the government came to the rescue of Northerners,, when protest was | filed against the establishment of 8
 cannery at Andreafski last year, by closing Kwiguk slough to the fisher-
 men. This slough is very unim- | portant channel of the Yukon rivel | flowing from the south mouth of
 the river short distance from Der, ing sea. The south mouth proper
 is the main channel, and it is up
 that stream that nearly all the sal
 mon make their way to the upper
 river. And there is where the fish | ing is being done.
 The Carlisle cannery is floating | concern, easily moved from one place | to another when occasion demands
 And when the Yukon has been empt-
 jed of it's fish the outfit will probably
 be moved to another part of Alaska
 to continue it's work of destruction.
 It is not an Alaskan institution, and
 while employment is given to some
 Alaskans a very considerable part of
 the force engaged is imported from
 the states for the season. as is done | by the canneries operating along the
 coast of Alaska. The imported help
 gets the best positions. the best fish ing locations and the most consider
 ate treatment in other respects, it is claimed.
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