96 SALMON GEAR LIMITATION 



industries are now threatened with the keen competition from the 

 other countries of the European Common Market if England joins 

 the group; yet, England seemingly has no real choice, for its economic 

 future fairly requires its entry into the group. It should, therefore, 

 be within the realm of legislative judgment for the Washington 

 legislators to take steps to insure efficiency, not to perpetuate in- 

 efficiency, within the fisheries. 



The foregoing is a brief, simplified, and quite incomplete list of 

 the problems faced by the people of Washington with respect to 

 commercial salmon fishing. Its inclusion here is intended for only 

 two purposes: 



The first is to demonstrate that there are substantial elements 

 of public interest associated with all aspects of the salmon fisheries 

 of Washington, that there are continuing old problems and complex 

 new problems which must be solved to insure the continued pros- 

 perity and well-being of the people in the state, and that these furnish 

 a basis upon which legislative judgment may be made in carrying 

 out the legislature's basic function — the enactment of those laws 

 which, in its judgment, are for the good of the general welfare. 



The second purpose is to demonstrate that there is one dominant 

 characteristic of the present problems in the field which, if removed 

 or substantially reduced in severity, would tend materially to improve 

 the welfare of the people of the state with reference to the salmon 

 fishery. The characteristic is obvious: The present problems are 

 largely traceable to the fact that, up to now, the schemes for regulat- 

 ing the fishery have put no restriction upon the number of par- 

 ticipants; in fact, it has been the fact that all comers could participate 

 which has led to the highly undesirable characteristics of the fishery 

 as outlined above. 



These two purposes having been demonstrated, there remains for 

 analysis only the task of considering the methods which may be 

 employed by the legislature to accomplish the desired result. 



It should be emphasized as a preliminary matter that, although 

 the current problem is primarily one of the number of participants, 

 the legislature can be and should be concerned also with the quality 

 of the fishermen and the fishing equipment. Dominant, however, 

 is the need to produce a more uniform fishing effort with accurate 

 control over the catching process and extended over a more con- 

 tinuous period of time. 



In this respect the problem, from a legalistic point of view, ought 



