The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1921-12-30

$4,000 reports due, more than q ,0OC
were actually made.
Since the passage of the 1915 law
complete statistical information has
been furnished for the first time since
the creation of the Fisheries Depart
ment
Reference is made to the recent
adoption of a new style of Matching
trough which should cheaper hatch
cry operations in the state. and per
mi of the work being carried on with
comfort by the employees, as against
many discomforts in the past.
The creation of the State Fisherie ;
Board by the 1921 legislature, which
wa recommended by Mr.. Darwin in
his 1915 report is declared to be a
step in the right direction, although
ne deplores the fact that the members
were not removed from political nfu-
ence in accordance with his sugges-
tion by appointments for long terms.
and that the employees of the Fisher
les Department We're not placed un-
der civil service.
Another change in the law, repeal
edly urged, was made by the 1921 ses-
sion of the legislature when the indi-
vidual fish was made the taxing unit.
and all the super taxes were done
away with. This law is receiving ap-
proval from all sections by the FISHING
industry because of its simplicity AMI
fairness.
The report points out that the dim
mutton of the salmon runs which has
occurred in Puget Sound has been OF
hose runs, namely the sockeye AMI
humpback, over which the state has
either no control at all in a propaga-
tion way, as in the case of the sock
eye, or only about one-third control,
as in the case of the humpback. Nine
ty-eight to ninety-nine per cent of the
sockeye entering Puget Sound pass
into the Fraser river in the Dominion
of Canada, and the other one or two
per cent go up the Skagit River, and
there are taken at the Government
hatchery, located on a tributary of
that stream.
II is this condition that has made
an agreement between this state and
the Canadian fishery officials abso-
lutely necessary, if limitation is to
be placed upon fishing operations so
as to permit of the escape of a suffi-
cient number of sockeye and hump
back tc permit of the supply being
perpetuated by natural and artificial
propagation in Canadian waters.
1t is to enable the Washington
Fisheries Board to offer something
tangible in the move of rehablita-
tion that moved Mr.. Darwin to ask
the last legislature to place 100000
at its disposal so that they may have
this amount to expend in conjunction
with the Canadian authorities in an
effort to rehabilitate the sockeye and
hur1pback salmon runs.
Attention is directed to the scien-
tifc work which, for the first time in
the history of the Department, was
carried on by the Fisheries Depart
nent to ascertain the life habits of
the salmon.
The information which has been as
certained by Prof. Trevor Kincaid
and Prof. Victor E. Smith, both of the
University of Washington, while EN-
ployed by the Department is invalu-
able. The fact that the salmon attain
their greatest growth during the last
few months of their lives has been
definitely ascertained, and also that
most of the varieties have their feed
ing grounds on the benches which
make off our western shores in the
Pacific ocean.
This leads to discussion of the
tremendous economic loss involved in
the destruction of immature salmon
from the mouth of the Columbia Riv-
ed to Cape Flattery.
The Department has been conduct
ed so economically, says the report
that the Matching cost of salmon.
which in 1912 was S104 per thous-
and. was by 1916 reduced to 24c per
thousand. And even during the area
of high war prices the cost only
ranged from 35c to sac per thousand.
Mr. Darwin states it to have been
his policy in case of financial strn-
gency to curtail every other activity
of the Department in order to operate
all the salmon hatcheries to the limit
Of their capacity.
This has seemed especially desir-
able in view of the continued increase
in fishing operations and in the num-
Der OF fishermen, and in view of the
fact that it has been plainly demon
strated that these increased fishing
operations have resulted in the deple-
tion of certain of the runs.
The reason the other runs have not
been depleted has been because of the
policy of transferring the surplus take
of eggs from one district TO another.
Il is pointed out that the Chinook
salmon run on Puget Sound has been