The Alaska daily empire., 1922-04-08


 neglected to say there was never a fish trap, anywhere in that vicinity and that the mischief was done there entirely by the seine, which were there operated by high power boats. This may have been the source of the fish story intended to be funny. Nowhere are there any better seine fishers and that mode of fishing can exterminate any variety of fish just as it has done on the Kennebec River in the state or Maine. He next jumped to the Taku River, which he said had not been depleted of sal mon, because there were no traps nearby, when the real reason is that on account of the floating ice, the purse seine couldn't do much damage there.
 The Columbia River, the greatest salmon fishing stream, and Alaska's nearest rival, he was particularly careful not to mention. That river furnishes real object lesson as the Columbia only few years ago was evidently rapidly becoming fished out, but the states of Washington and Oregon put in plenty of hatch cries. which they so successfully managed. that there was soon as many. or more, salmon running in that great river as ever before. In creasing the propagation was not the cnly thing they did. The traps were not cut out, but were actually in creased but they did stop the purse seiners
 In Alaska it might not be neces- sary to cut out the purse seine boats altogether, but as has been recon. mended by every fisheries expert. the purse seiners and gill netters should be restricted, even if the salmon sup ply is properly increased. MT. Suth. erland's argument against the fish traps is purely Bolsheviki, generally nnwelcome in America. He stated that as trap is something every. one couldn't have, no one should be allowed to have it.
 III thO VIII WINCH tuc traps from all bays and estuaries. there might be some reasoon for the estuary part. but there is none what ever for the bays, which would in clude 'the waters between the head. lands" and this might take them all out. It is the red salmon streams which should be specially kept up. as red salmon are always handled profitably. and are far more i'm. Dortant than all the oothers. The Chilkat and the Chilkoot are the chief red salmon waters, and yet ! whatevrr rns'r'c'io-r h'ra h-en so far made ag 'i,gt the fi~hing that hit the Indians. these waters have been excepted. One argument made against the traps has been that they caught more fish than were taken by other methods. This has not been true of the red salmon. There were can. neries on the Chillst before Alaska became American territory. dn fact that was where the great Alaskan SSe"eSu hAu dll those years there have never been any fish worth mentioning taken ex- cept by gill netters and hookers For 10 years or more there has not been a solitary trap in either of those waters. though few hundred gill netters and hookers have oper. ated every year and those streams have been as much or more depleted than any others
 In the Tenakee Inlet or estuary there was last season only one small trap and that caught very few fish Possibly the only estuary where the traps are numerous enough to be unprofitable. is the one where MT. Paul's trap has been located.
 It is or should be well known that the traps are the sanitary means of taking the fish as the salmon are in their natural element there. tfl within an hour or 60. and sometimes even less. of the time they reach the cannery. None of the canned product that has been condemned. or that though shipped away was un.