4 SALMON GEAR LIMITATION 



This over-development is not alone a matter of numbers of boats and 

 nets, although that is important. 



Other factors concern area of operations and efficiency of gear. Within 

 the past 10 years the Canadian side of Juan de Fuca Strait has become a 

 major fishing area. . . . The Power Block has doubled or tripled the number 

 of sets a seiner can make in a day. . . . Drum seine gear permits a boat to 

 make as many as 15 sets a day. . . . Synthetic fiber gill nets are universally 

 used, and they have about twice the fish-catching ability of linen nets. . . . 

 Mobility of the fleet, increasing with speed and power, permits high-speed 

 craft to shift between areas, defeating efforts at effective administration. 



Further, the fishermen get smarter, about the ways of the fish, and the 

 methods of fishing. 



To secure an escapement in the face of the increased intensity and 

 efficiency of fishing effort, the Commission has been forced to reduce 

 fishing time. Even -with the drastic measures applied on the Early Stuart 

 run in 1961, when the Strait was closed completely and the other major 

 areas averaged less than three days per week, the actual escapement was 

 less than 20 per cent of the run. 



If the fishery had operated in the Strait, and the other areas had been 

 on a two-day-a-week basis, it is doubtful if we could have secured the 

 minimum 20 per cent escapement. 



Essentially, the Commission is not concerned with the type of gear 

 which may be operated in Convention waters. That primarily is a gov- 

 ernmental responsibility. 



However, we do have the responsibility of regulating the operation of 

 that gear in order that ( 1 ) the sockeye and pink salmon resource of the 

 Eraser River may be conserved and increased; and (2) that the allowable 

 surplus above the needs of such conservation and growth be divided equally 

 between the fishermen of the two nations. 



So we are seriously concerned with the problem of increased develop- 

 ment of the fishery when: 



1. Fishing time must be reduced to the point where it is almost im- 

 possible for the staff to measure the timing and abundance of the 

 runs. 



2. Gear is so abundant and efficient that each fishery in several differ- 

 ent areas spread over 200 marine miles is taking virtually all of the 

 fish in any area while the gear is being operated. 



3. Large sections of the ffeet become resentful of necessary increase 

 in restrictions because of declining individual boat earnings, in spite 

 of favorable total catches. 



4. Gear competition and reduced earnings per boat threaten elimina- 

 tions of certain forms of gear to the point where division of allowable 

 catch between the national fleets might not be possible. 



