154 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 
enabled, therefore, to give a demonstration of the results of such 
operations when these two conditions appear in conjunction. The 
disastrous year of 1919 resulted. 
As to the future, there is no assurance of better protection than in 
1919. From our inquiries it appears that the Yukon runs of salmon 
are by no means uniform in size. Good years and poor years alter- 
nate, and occasional very poor years have always appeared. Mean- 
while the Carlisle company continues to operate without check be- 
yond the mouth of the river. Should they consider the prospect of 
success warranted the expenditure, there is nothing to prevent their 
increasing the number of fishermen and preparing for a pack of 
100,000 instead of 60,000 cases. Or one or more other companies 
may join in the business of catching Yukon salmon off the mouth of 
the river if they consider the venture a promising one. The Yukon 
run is wholly without adequate protection as long as the approaches 
to the river are open to unrestricted fishing and are outside the 
jurisdiction of the oes A of Commerce. 
Finally, it is the judgment of the writers that the Yukon River 
salmon run is not to be relied on annually to produce a surplus for 
export in addition to the supply needed for local requirements and 
the further quantity essential for propagation. During good years 
a surplus might be spared sufficient to produce a limited pack, but 
during poor years the operation of a cannery will have the effect 
of making a bad situation very decidedly worse. 
It is recommended, therefore, that all commercial fishing for 
export be prohibited in the Yukon River and its tributaries, includ- 
ing the waters of the delta and an area 500 yards outside the mouth 
of each channel or slough of the delta. 
Furthermore, it is recommended that immediate steps be taken to 
have brought within the jurisdiction of the Secretary of Commerce 
all those channels between the shoals and islands which form the 
approaches to the Yukon in order that commercial fishing in said 
channels for export may be effectively limited or entirely prohibited. 
O 
