The Daily Alaska empire., 1929-08-02
CONDITIONS IN
 WESTERN AREA
 DECLARED GOOD
O'Malley Finds Fishin g Conditions Good Except
 at Karluk River

The fishing situation in areas west of Southeast Alaska, is very good with the exception of Karluk where there was a failure of tho red salmon run, according to Hen ry O'Malley, U. s. Commissioner oi Fisheries, who returned here today after his annual inspection of those areas, and of the seal fisheries or Pribilof Islands.
 The seal herds are rapidly ap. preaching 100000 animals. The annual census is now being taker and it is estimated that it will just fall short of that number, the Com missioner said.
 Closes One Area
 One area, Prince William Sound will be closed four days ahead oi the date originally fixed. Orders have been issued shutting off com mercial salmon fishing in that dis trict at 6 am. tomorrow instead of 6 pm, August 2, the date fixec by the original regulations for the season. Due to additional float ing gear which has been put 1T use during the present season, il has been necessary to curtail oper- ations in order to provide for 6 proper escapement to the spawn ing beds" declared the Commis. sioner in assigning cause for tho bureaus action.
 Bristol Bay, the Alaska Peninsula the Kodiak Island area with tht exception of Karluk were good Cook Inlet appeared to be below average Prince William Sounc was excellent for the so-called of year.
 Karluk Situation Forecast The failure of reds in the KarluF River was not unforeseen. It wa. predicted in 1927 by Dr. Charles H Gilbert and Dr. Mills H. Rich il an official report covering the rec salmon runs to the Karluk river The question of whether an over. crowded spawning area would bt disastrous to succeeding cycle rum of salmon was discussed at somt 1 length. In 1924 there were tre, mendous runs of both humpies ant reds to the Karluk. Many of thu fish did not even reach the spawn 1 ing beds. The lake and river wer' polluted. with both fish and spawn The 1926 run of pinks, the next il cycle order, was failure. Observ ing these conditions, DTS. Gilber and Rich, after setting up thes' facts, said:
 "If a similar fate befell the 192 red-salmon eggs we shall have al extremely limited lingering rul in 1927 and failure of the I'll, in 1929"
 "The current season has bourn, out the prediction of these special ists. The red run was a failure but the run of pinks has been fair, Commissioner O'Malley said. Visits Spawning Beds
 The Commissioner went in by tn way of Iliamna and visited tn spawning beds in that area. H crossed on the Iliamna Bay-Iliamn; Lake trail. Ten years ago, h said, this was hardly semblanc of a trail At the present time is fast approaching wagon roao under the Alaska Road Commis sion, and will mean much to trave between Cook Inlet and Boring Sea
 "The Coast Guard very kindl cooperated with us by taking u from Bristol Bay to Pribilof Is lands and returning us to Unalask where the Brant was waiting" sai Commissioner O'Malley. Condition on the Pribilofs were good. A to tai of 39,253 skins were taken dur ing the sealing operations. Addi tional seals will be taken later thi summer for food purposes for tn natives which will bring the fins talks to approximately 10000 skim having a value of $1 100000. | Accompanying Commi issi 0 nc OMalley here were Dr. c. A. Cram ton who made the entire trip, an Stanley Osborne who joined ther at Cordova. The party will be her until Sunday morning, leaving the for Ketchikan. The Commissions .will spend several days inspectin 1 fisheries in the southern distri' and return here late next week. l T. J. Ssroepe returned on u Queen this morning from makir