The Daily Alaska empire., 1951-02-20
KODIAK BEAR MEMORIAL IS
 VOTED, 1O-5
By JIM HUTCHINSON

ming in the legislature today.
 The territorial senate voted 10 to for the Scavenius-C Carlson me- morial for Q year-around open season on Kodiak Islands big brownies The joint memorial, pre- yiously passed by the house, will 20 to the secretary of the interior and game officials as prayer from the legislature
 The votes against the memorial were by the solid Fairbanks dele gation Barr, Butrovich, Coble and Lhamon-and Heinie Snider of the third division, who likes Kodiak cears better than a closed door session of the legislature (which incidentally was continuing this afternoon.
 Much of the bear testimony was repetition of what was given carrier in the house, but Edward Ksithahn, curator of the territorial museum and library, was brought in as a new witness.
 Tn my view" he said at one point in his testimonial for the brownies, the bear is one of our finest resources.
 The memorial actually mentions only depredations of the islands bears against a struggling new cattle industry, but most of the discussion involved the extent of bears depredations against tn e salmon spawning runs.
 There were some differences of opinion
 Witnesses for the memorial were Pep. c. c. Carlson tD-Cordova and Karl Brunstad of Kodiak, speaking for the Kodiak Cattle Growers association.
 Keitnahn and Carlson differed sharply over whether bears are in- clined to stand playfully in, q stream and slap salmon out onto the bank like a cat at goldfish bowl.
 Carlso said he has seen 'em do 1t, Brunstad read a Fish and Wild life Service report that attributed to Kodiak bears a 31 per cent de- struction of salmon on spawning run in one creek of the Karluk River area.
 Keithahn said he often had seen bears in action along streams but only once saw one skipping salmon out onto the bank. That was from a deep hole at the bottom of 3 falls, where one bear went out on a log and Tipped a salmon ur to a partner on the bank, whe picked up the fish and walked into the brush.
 lie said that in other instances he witnessed the bears grabbed salmon in their teeth, almost in variably."
 T would say" he added, "thaf the bears catch of salmon f negligible"
 He said that after @ study o1 Southeast Alaska predators foi many years he had concluded that aside from man, that the mallarc duck is No 1. He said the ducks dig the eggs out of the stream beds, where seagulls can't get them and the gulls gather downstream to catch the floating egges iron the duck diggings.
 He expressed the opinion thal when a salmon is found on stream bank with a bite out of it, 1t | usually a raven bite instead of bears: q never have seen beal take a salmon from a stream anC not eat it."
 Some of the senators questioned Marshall Crutcher, Kodiak banke. who was in the gallery. He said he didn't know Of mor' than about 2OC cattle around th' area of the town of Kodiak ant thought about s50,000 a year woult be a fair estimate of the incom, to the island from bear huntlng
 After Carlson had given his testi mony on bear depredations agains i salmon runs, he said he coulo glV' assurance there wouldn't be any extermination of the species. In colorful Carlson fashion, h' told how 30 years ago, in the coasta area from Katalla to Cape Spencer brown bears were so thick thel were playing leapfrog."
 When Sen Joe Coble of Fair' banks asked him if there weren' salmon runs also on other lsland' where Carlson said the bears would be preserved. and whether 'w' should kill all those bears, too!