EEPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 99 



it at all. The supply of properly trained men is still far too small for 

 the work in this country. 



It is necessary that the hatcheries be government hatcheries, under 

 the control of the Bureau of Fisheries. The work can not be done in 

 any other way. A hatchery costs as much as a cannery, and only one 

 or two of the strong companies can meet that expense. The feebler 

 ones can not do it. Moreover, but few of the canneries are located 

 where hatcheries are possible, and the Treasury order requiring each 

 cannery to maintain a hatchery is necessarily a dead letter. 



A wise administration of the fisheries will permit the taking of 

 the largest number of fish compatible with the maintenance of the 

 supply, and will permit their capture by the cheapest method which 

 is not wasteful. With these conditions in mind we may outline what 

 would have been from the beginning the wisest policy for Bristol Bay, 

 where the conditions are in some respects unique. It is believed that 

 these measures, to a very large extent, are still applicable. 



(1) Fishing should be confined to such portions of the bay as are 

 available and to the estuaries at the mouths of the streams. A very 

 large proportion of the fish now captured in Bristol Bay are taken on 

 the grounds here indicated. The only exceptions are Wood River 

 and the Egushak (tributary to the Nushagak estuary), a single trap 35 

 miles above the mouth of the Kvichak River, and a certain amount of 

 gill netting now prosecuted in the Naknek, Igigik, and Ugashik rivers 

 at points above any reasonable interpretation of the term estuary. A 

 careful inspection of the field has shown that although the companies 

 interested would not voluntarily relinquish any part of the privileges 

 they now enjoy, the privilege of fishing in the upper rivers could be 

 withdrawn without serious injury to any established industry. The 

 proposed restriction is considered of primary and overwhelming 

 in4>ortance for the continued maintenance of the fish supply, in the 

 face of present conditions and of those sure to develop in the imme- 

 diate future. 



(2) It would be well if the use of traps or other fixed appliances for 

 the capture of salmon could be prohibited in the Bristol Bay region. 

 If, however, fishing were restricted to the estuaries, the immediate 

 purposes of this prohibition would be largelj^ accomplished. The 

 estuaries are for the most part unsuitable for the use of traps. 

 Storms and the strong tidal currents which obtain there frequently 

 demolish the nets, the muddy water is less favorable for their suc- 

 cessful operation than the clear water of the upper rivers, and the 

 floating debris, passing back and forth on the tides, clogs the meshes. 

 The recent history of traps in this district has shown a constant move- 

 ment out of the estuaries into the upper rivers, nearer and nearer to 

 the immediate spawning grounds of the salmon. During the season 



