FISHERY INDUSTRIES. 58 
cargoes at that port and to outfit for fishing operations and buy all 
supplies there. The object thus sought has in considerable measure 
been accomplished in 1915, as various American companies have been 
forced to invest money at Prince Rupert in order to obtain their pro- 
portion of the halibut trade. A number of American companies have 
made extensive investments at Prince Rupert and others contem- 
plate doing likewise unless measures are taken very soon to retain 
the halibut industry in American ports as it existed before the open- 
ing of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway to Prince Rupert. 
There is apparently nothing in the present laws or regulations of the 
United States extending sufficient authority to cope adequately with 
the situation. Plans are therefore being formulated for the enact- 
ment of legislation by Congress to give the necessary protection to the 
American halibut fishery and particularly to retain for American 
ports the trade which they formerly enjoyed, and which is now se- 
riously threatened and will undoubtedly be lost, very largely, and go 
to Prince Rupert and other Canadian towns. It is not only the loss 
of trade that American towns will suffer, which of itself is of sufficient 
importance to cause real concern, but it is the more important loss of 
Alaska citizens who will make their homes in Prince Rupert rather 
than in towns of southeastern Alaska, notably Ketchikan. This is a 
loss which Alaska should not be forced to sustain, and unless some- 
thing is done soon to remedy the situation it will be a distinct setback 
to the development of that Territory. 
The situation is peculiar in that undoubtedly means can be devised 
whereby not only will the trade be retained to southeast Alaska, but at 
the same time Prince Rupert may continue to enjoy in considerable 
measure the benefits of the industry and particularly the Grand 
Trunk Railway can have the benefit of as much freight traffic as 
though the fish were landed exclusively in Canada. A simple means 
of accomplishing this seems to lie in merely requiring that before hali- 
but taken from the waters of the Pacific may be shipped in bond to 
the United States through Canada they must first be landed at an 
American port. The adoption of this plan would likely result in the 
establishment of what might be termed a ferry service between 
Prince Rupert and Ketchikan. The cost of this probably would 
be borne largely by the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, but it does 
not seem to be a matter of great expense. In fact, it is probable that 
the establishment of such a service would prove profitable to the 
Grand Trunk Pacific Railway. Emphasis is laid upon the fact that 
under the remedy just suggested shipments of halibut to the eastern 
markets over this railway would continue to be as heavy as under 
present conditions. 
Another subject to which some attention was given in the last 
months of 1915 is the establishment of a close season for the taking 
