The Alaska daily empire., 1919-02-11
FAv0RS PROTECTING THE
 SMALL STREAMS
Walter Thomas Thinks Hatcheries Useless but Believes Proper Patrol- ing Would Give Sal
 mon Supply.

| That Ketchikan Pioneers, members
 evidenced by the fact that they have
 regular publicity committee and articles on current topics are pre- | pared by the committee and read at
 the weekly meetings of the Igloo. At | present the publicity committee is
 composed of Pioneers Joseph Ulmer, Jacob Johnson and A. E. Austin. A recent mail brought to E. J. | White, chief of the Alaska Bureau | of Publicity, number of articles
 which had been read before the Ket- /, chikan Igloo, of which the following,
 prepared by Walter Thomas on the | fish question, is one. The article follows:
 Pioneer IglOo No. 16,
 Ketchikan, Alaska, Feb. 4, 1919 Gentlemen:
 came to Alaska in 1890, went be- low and came back in the Spring of '91 and have been seine fishing every year until three years ago. I have been taking some notice of the sal mon and their ways of propagation I want to say something about the hatcheries. It has been demonstrat ed in this locality, that of all the
 millions that have been matched, not a single one has ever come back Hatchery superintendents can say what they like, but not one of them can show the goods on sockeye sal mon.
 I think it is a shame and sin, too, that the Government should not look a little closer into this busi
 ness, because it is one of the most important things, not only to Alas kans, but to the whole United States It may be rather confusing for
 people who do not understand the
 salmon propagation business. The hatchery superintendent can write a very glowing report of the millions
 of eggs matched each year, and fry and fingerlings and other things, and send it to the Bureau of Fish cries. They hatch some of the
 millions of eggs alright, and they are fish. They put them in pond and feed them until they get large enough to turn loose, there are blanks
 around this pond they walk on to the plank you make noise, the salmon promptly come to the surface to see what it is all about. When turned loose they have no sense of self preservation.
 Where the salmon do their own matching the shadow of a small bird flying over the water will make them scurry away and hide under a rock or root. Therefore, the artificial sal mon are an easy mark for the birds and fish that inhabit these waters.
 The money that is expended on the hatcheries would furnish labor and material for protecting all the small streams. However, there must be something done very soon if we are going to have any salmon left.
 Congress should make a special appropriation for the protection of the small streams in this District. If they were protected they would furnish a never-ending supply of sal mon. AS it is, it will be only a short time, and goodbye to the sal mon. There are hundreds of small streams in this locality that are not doing we'll on account of rock slides, log jams and fences that the salmon cannot get to their spawning ground For that reason, and the dry sea sons there are no fish matched be- cause they have to spawn where tide water overflows them.
 Take two to five men at some
 streams and they could be moved around to other streams with gas boat, which would be general sup. ply and inspection boat, that would
 see that things were done right. They would shave small trout seines and shotguns to clean out the trout and bullheads, and to kill and scare the birds away from the spawning grounds. The trout are the most voracious enemy to the spawning grounds. Some of the ducks and geese being uneatable because they eat a lot of salmon eggs. There fore, protect the streams and the salmon will do the rest.
 In regard to the fish traps, there has been a lot written and talked about between the cannerymen and fishermen in Washington and Ore gon, and here in Alaska people who have taken any interest in the salmon business have noticed that the traps have been depicting some of the fish streams in this locality. l believe there should be some restrictions in regard to fishing the traps, say close the trap twice a week instead or once a week as it stands now. what mean by closing the traps, is that no fish gets into the spiller for 4S hours each week, whatever days may be specified
 This trap. business is rather heavy for me to handle with the experience have had on these subjects and