148 ALASKA FISHERIES AND FUR INDUSTRIES IN 1919. 



Commissioner of Fisheries exceeds that conferred on the Secretary 

 of Commerce. 



Fui'ther improvements can be made in the Alaskan field by mak- 

 ing more adequate provision for the enforcement of the laws. Not 

 only are om* fishery statutes now pitifully inadequate, but they are 

 unusually and unnecessarily made difficult of enforcement. The 

 Com*missioner of the State of Washington and those authorized by 

 him exercise the power to arrest %'iolators of the fishing ordinances, 

 and they can seize any fishing appliance, including boats, traps, nets, 

 and fish wheels, used in violation of the provisions of the act. But 

 the agents of the Bureau, intrusted with the enforcement of the 

 Alaska laws, have neither power to arrest nor authority to seize 

 illegal gear. If it had been deliberately planned to hamper them in 

 the interests of violators of the laws, it could not have been done 

 more effectually. 



BRISTOL BAY AND RED-SALMON RUN OF 1919. 



The season of 1919 has proved the most complete failure in the 

 history of Bristol Bay. Not only was the run smaller than ever 

 before chronicled, but it was almost equally deficient in all the 

 streams of tlie chstrict. This has usually not been the case hereto- 

 fore. The poor Nushagak run of 1907 was accompanied by fully 

 average packs on the Kvichak and the other streams of the east side 

 of the bay. In 1911 there was a poor Nushagak run and also a rather 

 poor pack on the Naknek-Kvichak, but the Ugaguk had the largest 

 pack ever made to that date. The Nushagak was far below average 

 in 1912 and the other rivers all well ahead of all previous recor(£. 

 Only the Kvichak was deficient in 1915 and only the Nushagak in 

 1916. 



From tliis it appears that the runs have varied independently of 

 one another, thus favoring the assimiption that in each instance the 

 cause of failure was local in its nature, and not general. But in 

 1919 the situation seems different. The decrease in numbers of 

 red salmon was marked, almost without exception, throughout 

 central and western Alaska. Throughout the red-salmon district 

 a marked deficiency was shown, which culminated in Bristol Bay. 

 To account for tliis, it seems necessary to assume some widely dis- 

 tributed agency, which probably operated throughout these districts 

 during the life of the salmon in the sea. It appears impossible to 

 conceive that there should have been such a wide coincidence in un- 

 favorable local conditions as would be required to explain the 

 occurrence. 



The run of 1919, in aU the affected areas, was derived in part from 

 the brood of 1915, but more largely from the brood of 1914. So far 

 as is indicated by tlie pack of 1914, no cause can be assigned for the 

 1919 shortage. The pack was near its maximum in every Bristol 

 Bay river except the Ugashik. If the four-year period and the 

 season of 1915 be considered, a better case can be made out; for the 

 Kvichak-Naknek pack of 1915 was reduced nearly to half that for the 

 preceding three years; and although the Nushagak yield of 1915 was 

 above the average, the escape to the spawning grounds, tallied at the 

 Wood Kiver weir, was the smallest ever reported. However, in 

 1915, both the Ugaguk and the Ugashik made lavorable records, and 



