952 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES 
the Pioneer Sea Foods Co. by another fisherman for setting a net 
within the prohibited distance of another net, the company was 
found not guilty of the charge. 
The St. Vicholas and Commodore were seized on July 8 for illegal 
commercial herring fishing during the closed season at Port Chatham 
in the Cook Inlet region. On trial the defendants in the case, Ivan 
Botica, James C. Kelley, and S. Feinson, pleaded guilty and were 
fined $100 each. The boats and gear were released. 
In a case originating in 1924 against Libby, McNeill & Libby for 
illegal fishing of a trap during the weekly closed period, which was 
disposed of in 1926, the company was fined $50 on each of four 
counts. 
In the Kodiak district two fishermen were arrested for fishing on 
Sunday in Raspberry Strait. On trial they pleaded guilty and one 
was fined $100 and the other $10. The gear seized was released to 
the owners. 
In the Bristol Bay district two fishermen for Libby, McNeill & 
Libby were arrested for fishing in closed waters and were fined $50 
each and costs. Two independent fishermen were arrested on the 
same charge but released with a warning, and the case against an- 
other independent fisherman was dismissed, as it was shown he had 
been fishing for dog feed. 
ROBBERY OF FISH TRAPS 
There still continue to be complaints of robbery of fish traps in 
southeastern Alaska. A number of the larger canning companies 
established a patrol of 17 launches and a few other companies took 
similar action individually to protect their traps in 1926. While a 
number of cases of this so-called piracy were reported but few ar- 
rests were made. 
It is believed that the holding of the court in the trial of the case 
of United States v. Val Klemm et al., at Ketchikan, September 16 
and 17, 1926, will do much to curtail the extensive robbing of fish 
traps hereafter. The defendants were sentenced to three years in 
the Federal penitentiary. The following is extracted from the 
charge by Judge Reed to the jury in this case: 
When fish are impounded—that is, inclosed—in a trap and separated from 
the sea by said trap, so that they are in the actual personal or constructive 
possession of a person, they become subject to larceny, and any person who 
takes, steals, and carries away fish that have been impounded in a trap, with 
intent to convert them to his own use and deprive the owner and possessor 
thereof, is guilty of larceny. When fish are impounded in a trap belonging to 
any person, he has a special property in them by reason of having the fish im- 
pounded in a trap. 
It is said that prior to this case the impression had prevailed gen- 
erally that trap operators had no legal rights in fish alive in the 
traps until they were actually removed from the water. 
TERRITORIAL LICENSE TAX 
Fisheries license taxes were collected by the Territory under the 
general revenue law of 1921, as amended in 1923 and 1925. <A state- 
ment from W. G. Smith, Territorial treasurer, under date of April 
14, 1927, gives the collections made to that date for the year 1926. 
