The Daily Alaska empire., 1937-07-19


 cense their ships so to do, 1t is my belief that this has been done with out the knowledge of the govern ment; that these fishermen were fishing without license from their government.
 Since the problem of Japanese fishing in Bristol Bay exists, l be- lieve that it will be worked out sat- isfactorily by negotiations between the two governments.
 The State Department and the Bureau of Fisheries are sincere in the Investigations they are now carrying on regarding Japanese fishing, MT. Friele said. Leo D. Stur- |geon, representative of the State Department, was in Bristol Bay not long after MT. Friele flew over the Japanese.
 MT. Friele talked to MT. Sturgeon and reported to him the findings of his airplane trip over the foreign fishing vessels. Had weather per- mitted, MT. Sturgeon, who went north aboard the Bureau of Fish cries ship Brant with Deputy Com missioner of Fisheries, Charles E. Jackson, about ten days ago, would have attempted to repeat the flight made by MT Friele. This was accom- plished on July 12 by MT. Wingard. Bureau of Fisheries agent, and his findings were similar to those of Mir Friele.
 Both MT. Friele and MT Gilbert were impressed with the sincerity of the efforts of the State Department and the Bureau of Fisheries in in vestigating the problem of Japan csc salmon fishing in Alaskan wa ters, they said. MT. Wingard made two trips over the Bristol Bay area where the ships were thought to be before he saw the same group of ships that had been seen by MT. Friele five days before.
 investigate IbufaOTS
 Complaints of Japanese fishing for salmon in Bristol Bay had been so persistent, MT Friele said, that he decided to make the flight in lsearch of the ships that rumors had reported in order to settle the mat ter one way or another. Fishermen in the Westward had become arous- ed at the threatened invasion of for eign fisheries and the fact that this year the red salmon run, which should have been large, was unusu- ally small, had made them fear that the Japanese deep sea fishing for salmon had diverted the runs and broken up schools
 ITO tell the truth, expected to find the Japanese ships, people were reported to have seen, carry ing crab gear, which would not have | injured the salmon fishing" MT. Friele said.
 We had been hearing the radio signals between Japanese vessels, re- porting directions through the fog. As the signals became louder, I realized that the ships were proba- ply within distance to be reached by airplane"
 The story of the trip that first revealed the positive existence of Japanese salmon fishing, as told by MT. Friele to an Empire reporter yesterday, began when, with four other passengers and Pilot Jack FL Eliott, he left Nakeen on the Xvi chak river on the afternoon of July I7, and flew along the southern shore of Bristol Bay until, about twenty-eight miles off shore and off the mouth of the Ugashik river, they sighted group of four vessels, the mother ship, Taiyo Maru, and three smaller auxiliary vessels.
 The Taiyo Maru was team ves- lsel of the freighter type, of five or six thousand gross tons. The three smaller vessels were anchored in 2 group of about three hundred yards apart, and the mother ship was anchored about quarter of a mile distant, Mir Friele said. All were painted grey.
 From the depth of the Taiyo Maru in the water, it appeared to be about half loaded.
 The vessel was covered with fish | ing nets from stem to stern. They were draped over the cargo booms, super structure, and sides, presum- ably to dry. Lines of floats on the nets indicated that the nets were tof type used for surface fishing. "The gear used apparently creat- ed an artificial shore line about two miles long. along which the fish were seined into the boats" MT. Friele said.
 Two of the smaller ships had nets similar to those on the mother ship. Large open cargo boxes containing salmon were piled on the deck of one apparently in preparation for transfer to the mother ship.
 salmon on Decks "The decks of the third of the Esmaller ships were covered with about 10000 freshly caught salmon Ia big catch in season that is not good" Mir Friele said. The airplane circled over the Jap Ianese vessels many times at an all