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REPORT OF ALASKA INVESTIGATIONS. 



The complaint of some cannery men that hardship will be inflicted by the requirement that 25 feet 

 of the heart walls shall be opened to the passage of fish at low tide as well as high tide does not seem well 

 founded, as a competent and experienced trap man is authority for the statement that it is quite possible 

 to so construct traps that it will not be a particularly great hardship to effect closing in this manner. He 

 said that of course at times when the tide is strong or if there is a considerable sea running there may be 

 some trouble in opening up the full width of 25 feet. He further stated that if the 25-foot feature of the 

 law is enforced literally the practice of constructing heart walls of wire netting must necessarily be 

 modified in that the 25-foot section will have to be constructed of trap web rather than of wire. He stated 

 that haul-downs can be attached on the pile next to the pot and the pile 25 feet away from the pot, whereby 

 the web can be drawn down by means of a hand windlass of the type common in raising and lowering 

 the pots. The web section thus lifted or lowered can be attached at each side by means of rings sliding on 

 a piece of cable stretched taut, or on iron pipe. 



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Cholmondeley Sound, showing 80 purse seines in operation season of 1914. 



Under the circumstances as recited just above, and taking into account the need of imposing additional 

 restrictions upon trap fishing as conducted at present, I am disposed to recommend that hereafter no 

 exception be made in the requirement that the heart walls of all traps operated in Alaska shall be opened 

 for the full width of 25 feet on each side next to the pot, so as to permit the free passage of salmon and 

 other fishes, both at low stages and high stages of the tide. 



There has been a tendency in southeast Alaska to use aprons across the mouth of the tunnel for closing 

 purposes. This is a good method if it is honestly applied, but in my judgment it is susceptible of fraud, 

 for it is quite impossible for a Government inspector to determine, except at great expenditure of time, 

 whether the apron extends to the bottom of the trap. This is an important point, since the water is often 

 50, 60, or even 70 or 80 feet or more in depth at the entrance to the pot, though the pot usually does not 

 extend to the bottom. It is my belief that the law should be made to specify that the mouth of each 

 tunnel shall be closed both by means of an apron and by drawing the tunnel throughout its entire length 

 to one side of the pot. This double precaution will assure a suitable closing. 



