The Wrangell sentinel., 1955-09-02


 expressed their willingness and
 even eagerness to gain control over
 this vital resource so that it might
 regain the economic position it formerly occupied" said Bartlett
 Year after year this effort has
 been successfully opposed by the Department of the Interior and the salmon industry. Now the predic- tlons of Alaskans that continued federal management, or more pro- | perly mismanagement, would result in catastrophe have been borne out. We should all unite in bring ing about congressional enactment of legislation to transfer adminis- trative authority over the fisheries to the government of the Terri tory"
 Bartlett expressed shocked sur prise" that the federal administra- tor of the commercial fisheries was not long since quoted in Juneau as saying he was encouraged about Southeast when the pack in that part of Alaska this season was al most a complete failure.
 Il am sure," Bartlett said that he is virtually alone in being en- couraged."
 Steadily Down Since 1886
 The downward trend in Alaska salmon production has continued since 1886, when a record S,454.- S48 cases were packed. The last pack of more than six million cas- es was in 1941. In the following year it dropped by almost a million and a half cases. But the figures since then have been even more dismal Not since 1949 have as many as four million cases been put up in all the combined fishing districts of Alaska. In that wear there was a pack of 4,391,O51 cas- es. The decline in the following year was on the order of a million cases and now it is apparent that l955 production will be about 5OOI thousand cases less than 1853.
 Tt is apparent that the plans of the new administration of the Fish and Wlldlife Service have complete ly failed in effectiveness and that II Alaska's number one industry is not going to be lost to us forever the people chiefly concerned. name ly the people of Alaska, should nave the opportunity before the start of another fishing season to substitute their conservation plans Tor the ineffective ones of the fed eral government" Bartlett assert ed. Even so it will take several years to restore the runs to their tull vlgor and potentials. It can he done It can be done however. only under the direction of Alaskans whose stake in this industry is and always has been greater than that or bureaucratic agency in Wash ington, D. CT
 Scores NIP. Convention
 Bartlett said the failura of tbo leueral government to moyel promptly and effectively is dramat- lcally illustrated in respect to the North Pacific Fisheries Conven- tiOn.
 By the terms of the convan tlon,' he explained, 'sthe Japanese were permitted to take salmon ann certain other species of fish only westward of a designated line rnn- ming north and south through the worth Pacific. The convention nro- vlded that if research disclosed the Japanese were taking salmon orig mating in Alaska's streams the line would be moved westward What happened then? For too long noth- Ing at all has happened. The coin Ventlon was signed in May of 9oz. II was not until August 12. 1854, two years later, that the ad- pressed for and ob- talned a law placing in effect the provisions of the convention. IT was not until the current fisca, | year that the first research annro-