ALASKA FISHERIES AND FUE INDUSTKIES, 1911. 15 



other work demanded attention and no further survey by the vessel 

 was possible. 



An available site for a counting rack was surveyed and it is hoped 

 that the experiment now under way at Lake Aleknagik may be 

 repeated on this stream. Cliignik being isolated from all other 

 important salmon streams, it is an ideal location for a census of 

 spawners. 



This is the first season that an agent has been stationed at this 

 place. Chignik is peculiar in the fact that most all the salmon are 

 taken by means of traps, and for this reason the observance of the 

 weekly close season is of prime importance. It was, in the main, 

 carefully observed this year and natives report an unexampled 

 abundance of spawning fish in the lakes. 



MARKED SALMON. 



Under date of March 17, 1908, the Secretary of Commerce and 

 Labor addressed the following notice to owners and operators of 

 salmon hatcheries in Alaska: 



The act for the protection of the salmon fisheries of Alaska, approved June 26, 1906, 

 vests in the Secretary of Commerce and Labor the proper investigation, inspection, 

 and regulation of the Alaskan fisheries. The department, through its salmon inspec- 

 tion service under the Bureau of Fisheries, intends to conduct through a term of years a 

 series of investigations of the fisheries, particularly by marking and liberating salmon 

 fry artificially hatched and examining the return of adults. Such markings have 

 hitherto been made by various persons in Alaska. It is necessary in order that confusion 

 of the results may be avoided that no further experiments of this sort be undertaken by 

 the commercial hatcheries, or that none be made save by the permission of this depart- 

 ment. It is therefore directed, under the authority of sections 11 and 12 of the Alaska 

 fisheries law, that any persons desiring to mark and release salmon in Alaska first 

 consult with and secure the written consent of the Commissioner of Fisheries or of 

 the agent at the salmon fisheries of Alaska. 



This regulation is stUl hi force. At Yes Bay a number of salmon 

 were caught during the season minus fins, thus indicating that they 

 had been marked. A number of marked salmon were also observed 

 at the Quadra hatchery. 



THE GOVERNMENT AND ITS RELATION TO PRIVATE HATCHERIES. 



Criticism has been made from time to time of the supervision 

 exercised by the Government over private hatcheries in Alaska. In 

 particular, the report of the grand jury sitting at Valdez in March, 

 1911, expressed this attitude. Reply was made by the Secretary 

 of Commerce and Labor under date of May 2, 1911, in part as follows: 



Under the heading "Fisheries " this report comments on the provision of the present 

 Alaska fisheries law providing for tax exemption on account of salmon fry liberated 

 by packers maintaining hatcheriea. 



