REPORT OF .THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 99 
it at all. The supply of properly trained men is still far too small for 
the work in this country. 
It is necessary that the hatcheries be government hatcheries, under 
the control of the Bureau of Fisheries. The work can not be done in 
any other way. A hatchery costs as much as a cannery, and only one 
or two of the strong companies can meet that expense. The feebler 
ones can not doit. Moreover, but few of the canneries are located 
where hatcheries are possible, and the Treasury order requiring each 
cannery to maintain a hatchery is necessarily a dead letter. 
A wise administration of the fisheries will permit the taking of 
the largest number of fish compatible with the maintenance of the 
supply, and will permit their capture by the cheapest method which 
is not wasteful. With these conditions in mind we may outline what 
would have been from the beginning the wisest policy for Bristol Bay, 
where the conditions are in some respects unique. It is believed that 
these measures, to a very large extent, are still applicable. 
(1) Fishing should be confined to such portions of the bay as are 
available and to the estuaries at the mouths of the streams. A very 
large proportion of the fish now captured in Bristol Bay are taken on 
the grounds here indicated. The only exceptions are Wood River 
and the Egushak (tributary to the Nushagak estuary), a single trap 35 
miles above the mouth of the Kvichak River, and a certain amount of 
gill netting now prosecuted in the Naknek, Igigik, and Ugashik rivers 
at points above any reasonable interpretation of the term estuary. A 
careful inspection of the field has shown that although the companies 
interested would not voluntarily relinquish any part of the privileges 
they now enjoy, the privilege of fishing in the upper rivers could be 
withdrawn without serious injury to any established industry. The 
proposed restriction is considered of -primary and overwhelming 
importance for the continued maintenance of the fish supply, in the 
face of present conditions and of those sure to develop in the imme- 
diate future. 
(2) It would be well if the use of traps or other fixed appliances for 
the capture of salmon could be prohibited in the Bristol Bay region. 
If, however, fishing were restricted to the estuaries, the immediate 
purposes of this prohibition would be largely accomplished. The 
estuaries are for the most part unsuitable for the use of traps. 
Storms and the strong tidal currents which obtain there frequently 
demolish the nets, the muddy water is less favorable for their suc- 
cessful operation than the clear water of the upper rivers, and the 
floating débris, passing back and forth on the tides, clogs the meshes. 
The recent history of traps in this district has shown a constant move- 
ment out of the estuaries into the upper rivers, nearer and nearer to 
the immediate spawning grounds of the salmon. During the season 
