FISHERIES OF WASHINGTON AND BRITISH COLUMBIA. 305 



return them alive to the water. This results mainly from the large 

 size, generally, of the catches and the difficulty of sorting them during 

 the operation of emptying the crib. With the exception of some of 

 the largest forms, it is customary to load everything on scows by 

 means of large dip nets or by reversing the crib net, after which the 

 desirable parts of the catch are selected out and the remainder thrown 

 away — nearly all being dead by this time. Experience with trap nets 

 in other regions shows that some discrimination can be made during 

 the progress of removal, especially when the species to be saved are 

 large and easily recognized, as is the case here, but in so doing the 

 work is much prolonged and the exjaense increased. In a new region, 

 so rich in resources as the one in question, where use can be found for 

 only the choicer products and competition is exceedingly keen, it is 

 questionable whether such exacting regulations of this character would 

 be either wise or expedient at present. In fact, regulations looking 

 to the release alive of any j)art of the catch of trap nets seldom con- 

 template in any region the assorting of the catch by hand, but only 

 the escape of the smaller fish through proper restrictions upon the size 

 of the mesh. This is a question which indeed deserves consideration 

 in connection with the traps of the Puget Sound region. 



Among the species said to be destroyed in quantity are the quinnat, 

 when ofl" color, humpback and other salmon, sturgeon, herring, smelt, 

 and flounders. As it is not possible to determine the color of the 

 quinnat until it has been cut, there seems to be no way of atibrding 

 the protection which it equally lacks when taken by other methods. 

 Dogfish, which are sometimes captured in large numbers, are returned 

 alive to the water, and a sale is springing up for the sturgeon, though 

 many have been wasted in the past. 



GILL NETS. 

 BRITISH COLUMBIA. 



Gill nets are the principal appliances of the salmon fishery in British 

 Columbia, but in Washington they are less important than tlie traps 

 and seines. In Canadian waters, in fact, commercial fishing for salmon 

 with nets is restricted to the use of drift gill nets, except in the upper 

 part of Boundary Bay, where traps have been allowed, and in one 

 or two northern localities, where seining is permitted because of the 

 clearness of the water. The drift-net grounds are mostly limited to 

 the Fraser River and the adjacent part of the Gulf of Georgia, where the 

 advantages for fishing are much greater 'than in any other section of 

 this entire region. JsTot only does this river and its approaches have 

 the largest runs of all the species of salmon, but during the most impor- 

 tant months for fishing they present together an exceedingly large area 

 of highly discolored water in which gill nets may be used as efiectively 

 in the daytime as at night. This discoloration, which results from the 

 floods caused by the melting snows among the mountains, commences 

 generally about the middle of April and lasts until early in the fall, 



F C 99 20 



