FISPTERIES OF WASHINGTON AND BRITISH COLUMBIA. 34l 



In the protection of this species, the one most urgently requiring 

 such attention, the trap nets, therefore, figure most conspicuously and 

 the importance of fixing their proper limitations will very readily be 

 api^reciated. With suitable restrictions upon the manner of their 

 employment, the greatest danger lies in the tendency to multiply their 

 number unduly, and in this direction there is reason to fear that much 

 harm may soon be done. The trap nets are mostly located in exposed 

 positions, where it is necessary to construct them of unusual strength, 

 but in sj)ite of this precaution they seldom last a single season without 

 repair. They are consequently exi)ensive to build and operate, which 

 places them beyond the means of the ordinary fishermen, and are in 

 fact almost exclusively run by the canneries or directly for them. In 

 size they generally much exceed the pound nets of the Great Lakes, 

 after which they were originally patterned, and, with the improvements 

 recently introduced, are certain of securing large catches whenever the 

 sockeye are abundant. Thus perfected, they have greatly cheapened 

 the cost of capture and produced a sharp competition with the gill-net 

 interests on. the Fraser ]*iver as well as in Skagit Bay. The efforts 

 made by the gill-netters in the latter locality to secure the prohibition 

 of trap-net fishing throughout the Puget Sound region had apparently 

 no reference to the preservation of the salmon, but seem to have been 

 directed solely against the larger fisheries, to which the great pros- 

 perity of the region in recent years has undoubtedly been chiefly due. 



The number of trap nets that might safely be allowed in connection 

 with the sockeye fishery depends upon information not yet available. 

 It was not supposed that there were too many in 1895, when they were 

 last studied, but a very large increase has taken place since then and 

 the limit of safety may have been passed. The danger is most immi- 

 nent in Skagit Bay, where the run of sockeye is much smaller than 

 toward the Fraser Eiver, and where the opportunities for establishing 

 trap nets are exceptionally good. In this narrow and shallow area 

 these devices, supplemented by other forms of apparatus, may readily 

 be so multiplied as practically to barricade the way toward the river, 

 preventing not only the sockeye but the silver salmon as well from 

 reaching their sj)awning-grounds, and virtually breaking up the runs in 

 this locality. 



If, as claimed, scarcely any young salmon are ever taken in the traps, 

 the question of the size of mesh is not material, unless it be in the 

 interest of other and smaller fishes which may be caught in the same 

 connection, but regarding which we have received no positive informa- 

 tion. The mesh should certainly not measure less than 3 inches in the 

 crib and 6 inches in the leaders. A somewhat larger size could prob- 

 ably be employed withovit detriment to the salmon catch, but floating 

 seaweed is abundant in the region and the larger the openings the more 

 readily these weeds become attached to the net, weighing it down and 

 closing the meshes. The size of the crib is of ijractically little impor- 



