106 American Fisheries Society 



deal of amendment, for they have to be tried out. You 

 can hardly expect any outsider not interested in the fish- 

 eries business to realize all the various intricacies of the 

 problem. You can not, on the other hand, expect the 

 people themselves, most of whom are more interested 

 in what happens immediately than in the long future 

 of the fisheries, to work out those problems. 



"A few representatives of the Alaska Packers' Asso- 

 ciation are here, and even if they were not present, I 

 should like to make an exception of them, because they 

 have striven very earnestly to work for the long future, 

 as well as for any immediate profits to the companies 

 themselves. I have not felt that was always true of all 

 the companies operating in Alaska. There is a sentiment 

 found in the Northwest sometimes, that 'whatever is 

 not nailed down, is mine, and whatever I can pry loose 

 is not nailed down,' and that idea contributes sometimes 

 to the detriment of all kinds of fishes and animals. 



"The matter in regard to the international fisheries 

 stands now practically as it did before. We are in need 

 of some law or agreement, governing the matter along 

 the international line. It is not possible to make any 

 law or agreement except by treaty between the United 

 States and Canada, and this treaty should be in the form 

 of unification of statutes. The methods by which they 

 should be framed and enforced are more difficult in Can- 

 ada than with us, but the principles involved on both 

 sides of the line are much the same, and the only serious 

 and fundamental difficulty seems to lie in Puget Sound, 

 where neither the standards that we propose, nor any 

 others that we can think of, seem to be permanently sat- 

 isfactory. 



"While sometimes our efforts along the line of in- 

 creased efficiency and better methods with regard to fish- 

 eries may seem for the present unavailing, you can not 

 expect to see any results or consequences of such efforts 

 in your life time; but there is still much satisfaction in 

 the endeavor, if you know that the cause you work for 

 will some time be prolific of good." 



