94 SALMON GEAR LIMITATION 



public interest in this rapidly depleting natural resource and to secure fair 

 adjustment of private rights in the industry ... It is far too late, if it ever 

 was otherwise, to urge that the states are impotent to restrict this unfettered 

 race or to put it upon terms of proportionate equality by whatever meas- 

 ures may be reasonably necessary to that end."^^^ 



This peculiar characteristic of these "mobile" resources is thus 

 the primary reason for governmental control. So far, within the 

 fishing industry, it has taken the form of restrictions upon the time 

 and place for fishing and upon the form of gear which may be used. 



The problems to which this project have been directed have 

 been the inadequacies which the legislature has perceived to have 

 resulted from that form of governmental regulation. Although the 

 old form of those regulations, i.e., the restrictions upon time, place 

 and gear, has indeed been of substantial help in conserving the 

 salmon resources, it has not wholly solved the old problem and, at 

 the same time, has introduced a whole set of new problems. 



The first of these is but a ramification of the old problem: As is 

 outlined in other parts of this report, the peculiar fact of salmon 

 migration is that it does not provide adequate escapement for spawn- 

 ing simply to insure that some total number of salmon be permitted 

 to go upstream during the over-all season, without regard to when 

 and from what subgroups of salmon those spawning salmon are 

 selected for escapement. The fish apparently travel in rather discreet 

 groupings, in fact in such small groups that, with a scheme of fishing 

 regulation which allows unlimited fishing effort one or two days a 

 week and then no fishing at all for the rest of the week, a highly 

 unbalanced batch of salmon are allowed to go up for spawning. 

 It should be emphasized, incidentally, that this paragraph's coverage 

 of this aspect is probably somewhat oversimplified; details are the 

 subject for the biologists; it is sufficient for the legislative purpose 

 that the legislator understand as well as he can the dimensions of 

 the problem, have faith in his scientific advisers, and act rationally 

 upon their advice. Certainly, there is sufficient recommendation 

 from biologists and others familiar with the fishing industry for the 

 legislature to take steps to remedy these undesirable consequences 

 of uneven and largely uncontrolled fishing effort. 



This phase is further complicated by the requirements of accurate 

 measurement of salmon passage, both for escapement and for division 

 of the Fraser River catch by the International Commission upon 



120. /J. at 92. 



