228 The Life Story of the Fish 



compared to the ruination which faces the large number of 

 canneries and fishermen under conditions as they exist now. 

 What regulations can be devised to bring this about is the 

 question. 



One fishery where regulation can be carried out without 

 difficulty along whatever lines are indicated as best for the 

 long-range interests of both the fish and the fishermen is the 

 Alaska salmon. Alaska being a territory, federal agencies 

 have complete control and have been able to carry out their 

 program of providing for an "escapement" of fish to the 

 spawning-beds equal in numbers to the catch. For years they 

 accomplished this by actually counting the fish through 

 weirs. With the information obtained in this way on the 

 sizes and times of the spawning runs they have recently 

 been able to regulate the escapement by closed seasons, with 

 continuing counts at but a few points to provide a check on 

 the success of this method. 



The salmons are among the most valuable of fishes, and 

 at the same time the most vulnerable. Their value on the 

 market in dollars and cents is high, but even higher is the 

 value of their habit of life, for they go out into the ocean, 

 spend years there collecting its nutrient elements, and then 

 bring back all that nourishment in concentrated form and 

 deposit it at our very front doors. No plowing, no plant- 

 ing, no cultivating is necessary j not even a sea voyage to 

 seek out and harvest the crop, as in the case of other fishes. 

 The fact that many salmon are caught at sea does not invali- 

 date the last statement. There can be no doubt that the most 

 efficient way to harvest the salmon crop would be to carry 

 on all fishing at the mouths of rivers, take the "maximum 

 sustained yield" at these points in the shortest possible time, 

 and allow the necessary spawning escapement. Such a scheme 

 could be put into effect only in a fully regimented society. 

 That much salmon fishing is now carried on in other and 



