The Daily Alaska empire., 1934-06-27

will proceed to the Pribilof Islands visiting numerous communities and a number of salmon canneries en- route.
 The Commissioner pointed to many changes made during his first year in office which liberalized ex- isting regulations and which were largely instrumental in bringing about improvement noted.
 Good Work To Continue
 "Our morale and our spirit are infinitely better than formerly, , the Commissioner said It is my aim to do all that I possibly can to see that the good work contin- ues.
 Tt is interesting to compare the figures of the catches of salmon last year of the old administra- ton, with the corresponding catch es by seines and traps in 1883, the first year of the New Deal ad- ministration, as it will be seen at once how greatly the regulations effective in 1883 aid the seine fishermen as compared with those who operated traps.
 Tn 1892, seines caught l0,944. .812 salmon and traps caught FIT ,l80 salmon. In 1893, the catch by seines was 17,120,301 salmon and the catch by traps was 36,512,034." !"
 Thus in 1883 the catch by seines was 6,175, ,489, or 56 per cent. great CT than in 1882, whereas the catch by traps was 5,2O5,136, or 12 per cent. less than in 1892.
 Certainly, this is striking evil dence of the benefits obtained by the seine fishermen of Alaska un- der the regulations which were eff fective in the season of 1933 It is believed that when the figures for the season of 1884 become avail able, there will be shown a fur ther decrease in the total salmon caught by traps and an increase in the catch by seines."
 Changes Are Listed
 Commissioner Bell enumerated twenty major changes made in reg ulations for the salmon industry for the current season, as follows:
 T. Closure of 97 trap sites, of which 63 were in Southeast Alaska. The subsequent opening of 18 sites by reason of trades and arrange ments leading up to the original closure of sites, makes a net re- duction of 79 sites at which traps could have been operated, all of which were potential producers of salmon. The sites closed caught over four and one-half million sal mon the last year of their opera tion.
 g. Reopening of more than 40 bays and other waters previously closed to all commercial fishing for salmon.
 8. Removal of the seasonal closed period on trolling.
 A. Allowing the use of leads up to 20 fathons in length on purse seines in Southeast Alaska.
 5. Allowing the use of set nets over greater beach areas in Bris- tol Bay
 "6. Permitting 50-fathom in- creases in length of stake or an- chored gill nets, and 25-fathom in- creases in length of beach seines in the Alaska Peninsula area.
 '7. Permitting 50-fathom in- creases in length of set or anchor ed gill nets, and the use of hook not exceeding 30 yards in length on such nets, in the Chignik area.
 Kodiak Open to Seiners
 "8. Revocation of the prohibition against the use of purse seines in the Kodiak area.
 ''9. Permission to use a hook not more than 50 yards long on set or anchored gill nets in the Kodiak areas.
 "10. Modification of the fishing season in the Kodiak area to per- init commercial fishing to begin as much as 50 days earlier than formerly.
 "11. Allowing an increase of 751 fathoms in the length of gill nets in the Copper River area, and an increase of 50 fathoms in length of such nets in the Stikine river district.
 "12. Reduction of the distance interval from 400 yards to 200 yards
 tUonrinued on Page Two)