The Cordova daily times., 1921-01-13

was brought up, some OD1eCtIng to | the serious restriction of fishing in some places if the lead is measured from high tide mark.
 YUKON RIVER HEARING
 A great diversity of views was ex- pressed in the hearing on the Yukon river fishery, held by the bureau of fisheries November 23, and consiler- able interest was shown. although only one operator is directly affected. The principal feature of the hearing was the reading of a report on the Investigation made last summer for the bureau of fisheries by Henry O'Malley and Dr. c. H. Gilbert. In it's conclusion, this report holds that sal mon are the main dependence of the natives of the Yukon valley for food, and are also of importance to the white residents, while they are vitally important as dog food, to provide for transportation. "The principle should be adopted" the report says, "with l regard to interior rivers of Alaska, that no commercial interests should | be permitted to exploit them until it should be demonstrated that a portion of their salmon run could be spared . without detriment to the run itself, and without encroaching on the SUD- ply needed by the populations that in | habit the valleys of those rivers" Ad- mitting the benefit of the cannery to the district the report cites the pre- vious order limiting the pack to 5O,OOO cases, and mentions that, realizing the | limitation of the bureaus jurisdiction . t0 within 500 yards outside the river, put up approximately the maximum | pack inside the river, and then pro- ceeded to nearly double this with sal i mon taken outside This, it is held, | was responsible for the disastrous shortage of fish up the river. The Yukon river, the report says, is with out protection as long as it's ap- breaches are open tC unrestricted fish ing; and the river is not to be relied | on to produce an annual surplus for , export.
 The final recommendations are as | follows: That all commercial fishing for export be prohibited in the Yukon river and it's tributaries, including the | waters of the delta and an area 500 yards outside the mouth of each chan nel," and that immediate steps be | taken to have brought within the jur- isdiction of the secretary of commerce all those channels between the shoals | and islands which form the ap- breaches to. the Yukon, in order that commercial fishing in said channels may be effectively limited or entirely prohibited"
 A large number of witnesses were introduced on behalf of the Carlisle Packing Company to show that the shortage of salmon in the up-river dis tricts was due to high water and the shiftlessness of the natives; that there was no real suffering on account of it, and that an abundance of other fish is available for winter food; that the Yukon is comparable to the Co., l'lmb1a as salmon stream, and can- not be over-fished on account of ad- verse conditions. A. F. Zipf. of the Carlisle Packing Company, gave an account of the investment made in the plant, and the loss that would result if fishing were now stopped. c. D. Garfield, as secretary of the Alaska fish commission, emphasized the need of more complete scientific-I knowledge of the actual conditions ex- isting along the Yukon as basis for permanent conservation and devel opment policy.
 LITTLE INTEREST IN KUsKo-
 kWIM
 Comparatively little interest was taken in the hearing on the Kusko- kWlm river fishery, held November 30, A. T. Siem and Louis Knaflich being the only persons present representing the commercial fishery. Letters were read from some of the. residents of the upper river district, appealing for protection of the fishery for the sake of the natives and prospectors, and complaining of scarcity of fish. MT. Siem estimated the output of the com mercial fishery this year at about 2,OOO bbls. and 200 tierces, and said there was always a shortage among the natives, because they never aimed to put up more than barely enough. Up to 1918, he said, the fishery had amounted to little, and nobody had