34 FISHERIES OF ALASKA, 1908. 



Upon the agreement of the trap owners to plead guilty and assume 

 all responsibility for the illegal actions of their employees, the in- 

 dictments against the latter were quashed. On July 28 and 29 the 

 defendants, either in person or by their attorneys, entered pleas of 

 guilty, and on July 30 the court sentenced them to a fine of $150 for 

 each trap fished illegally. As an offset to the small penalty inflicted 

 (the maximum penalty is a fine of $1,000 and imprisonment at hard 

 labor for ninety days for each offense), the court announced that if 

 any of the defendants were brought before him again on a charge of 

 illegal fishing, he would inflict practically the maximum penalty. 



The most reprehensible feature of these violations was that at the 

 time of the second visit (July 11-13) every one of the canneries was 

 glutted, there being an immense run of salmon then on, and but few 

 plants being able to "brail" their traps oftener than two or three 

 times a week; notwithstanding which congested condition, the traps 

 were operating during the closed as well as the open season. 



It is a pleasure to record that of the seven owners of traps operated 

 illegally during the closed season of July 4-6, three were found to have 

 their traps closed during the closed season of July 11-13, while one 

 owner had but 1 of his 6 traps partially open, and that in but a tech- 

 nical violation. It is but just also to state that several of the defend- 

 ant corporations very probably had no knowledge of the illegal pro- 

 cedure of their superintendents, and one, the largest operator in the 

 district, took drastic action by discharging those responsible and send- 

 ing to its other superintendents a warning that they personally would 

 be held responsible for violations of the law by their men. In a 

 country so thinly settled as Alaska, and where the superintendent of 

 a cannery is so far from his home office, with the direction of every- 

 thing entirely in his own hands, the large companies find it a difficult, 

 if not impossible, matter to control their subordinates as they could if 

 within easy reach, and whether the men fish legally or illegally is 

 largely dependent upon the superintendent's own personal inclina- 

 tions. It is to be hoped that the action taken this year will be a 

 lasting benefit to the fisheries. 



The most gratifying development of this action was the support 

 and encouragement extended by most of the newspapers and many 

 of the citizens of the district, showing clearly a healthy public senti- 

 ment in favor of the enforcement of the fisheries law. 



A few complaints were received of the wanton destruction of sal- 

 mon and other food fishes by certain of the trap owners ; but as the 

 complainants were not willing to appear openly in the matter, and 

 the trap men naturally would not commit such a violation while the 

 Department's agents were at hand, nothing could be done. A few 

 of the cannery men do not pack dog salmon, and it is very probable 

 that with their method of emptying their traps but few of these man- 



