The Cordova daily times., 1921-10-18


 quantities of fish taken by this means from the waters of Alaska. principally in the southeastern section. and the disregard paid by many cannery oper- ators to the weekly close season. One instance is cited where a trap was ! hrailed just at the closing time on 1 Saturday evening. and 32,OO0 fish were 1 taken; the following Monday morning, 1 just after the close season had expired | 60, 900 fish were taken from the same trap, during which period the law re- quired that the trap be closed and not | fishing. The company which owned this trap operated 12 others and made no pretense of obeying the Sunday closing law. It was estimated that during the fishing season these traps 1 caught over 500,000 fish
 There are aver 600 traps in south eastern Alaska. only about 40 of which are being operated this season. It is estimated that an equal number of fish are caught by seines as by traps GREAT QUANTITIES CAUGHT 1 In one section near Ketchikan there are 90 traps within distance of Is miles. Two of these are at the point where the waters of the Inside Pass age come into Tongass N9rrows, and when the tide sets north these traps catch immense quantities of fish on their way to Ketchikaa. This year there has been a very unusual run of pink salmon, or humpies, in Ketchi- kan creek. Nothing like it has been seen for nine or ten years. It is a sands of salmon working their way up stream. They encounter a series Of rapids and one fall or six or eight feet. where the water foams and ! dashes over the large rocks with great force. It is claimed that this very l large run of salmon is due to the fact that so many traps are closed and that fewer seines are being used.
 One government official, whose work took him to a salmon stream four years ago. was able to count only about 4,000 salmon After his visit logging company took a contract to cut some timber on the stream and drove piling at the mouth of the river . in connection with their work. Three years ago and last year, this stream was literally jammed with fish going up. This difference is attributed to the fact that the seiners were not able to get into the stream on account of the piling and so the fish had a chance
 Mir. Heckman has come to the con clusion that the present weekly close season, from a. m. on Saturdays to a m on the following Monday, does not properly protect the fish, even when the law is observed. He advo-
 
 latter end of the fishing season. dur ing which time neither traps nor seines should be allowed to catch fish or the canneries to have fish in their possession.
 It has been proposed tha he fish cries be turned over to the territory to look after. because better supervi- sion could be given by officials on the ground The federal bureau of fisher ies at Washington has been handi- capped by small appropriations. Large sums of money would be necessary to provide enough speed power boats to properly patrol the vast stretches of water in Alaska. The bureau has 12 men, including special patrolmeu with four boats, to patrol the streams be- tween Yakutat and Ketchikan. dis tance of 49O miles. not taking into ac- count the deep indentations of the coast line, in which section there are over 1000 salmon streams.
 The territorial fish commission. under the supervision of the governor, has been for several years doing ex- perimental and research work and otherwise trying to assist in the de- yelopmcnt and perpetuation of the salmon fisheries, which furnish what may be called the raw material for the largest industry in Alaska. ia invest