REPORT 0¥ THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 95 



Traps, or pound nets, are used sparingly in southeast Alaska, more 

 numerously in the northern than in the southern portion, while in 

 Chignik Bay and in Bristol Bay they are used almost exclusively. 

 They are effective when the run is large. An objection to them is 

 that they sometimes take more fish than the canneries can use; more- 

 over, they fish without intermission and take large quantities of other 

 fishes than salmon, such as flounders, pollack, cod, "Irish lords," 

 Dolly Varden trout, and other species, which are all wasted. This 

 is a matter of slight economic importance at present, when there is 

 little or no demand for these species in Alaska, but a trap may be very 

 objectionable when placed in the mouth of a stream by continuously 

 preventing the ascent of salmon to the spawning grounds. Various 

 traps thus located, as in the lagoon of Chignik River, at the mouth of 

 Yes Bay stream, and elsewhere, have been the subject of controversy 

 between the salmon inspectors and the canners. The Yes Bay trap is 

 plainl}^ injurious. 



There were in operation in 1903 in Chignik Bay and lagoon 29 traps, 

 so located as to practically close the channel, and the traps in Wood 

 River are open to the same objection. This condition is manifestly 

 not to the best interests of the salmon fisheries and should not be 

 continued. It may be noted, also, that the traps, even in Puget Sound 

 and the Columbia River, where they are most numerous and most 

 extensive, constitute only a small part of the fishing equipment or the 

 obstruction to the movement of the fish. In the Columbia River there 

 were in operation in 1903 731 miles of webbing offering obstruction to 

 the free movement of fish, of which 710 miles are chargeable to gill 

 nets, 5 miles to seines, 1 mile to wheels, and 15 miles to traps. In 

 the Puget Sound and Eraser River region there was a total of 410 

 miles, of which 375 miles was chargeable to gill nets and only 35 miles 

 to traps. There were 96 traps, all operated on the American side, 

 and 3,000 gilhnet boats, all operated in or off the mouth of Fraser 

 River. 



It would doubtless be better if all traps, whether fixed or floating, 

 were entirely excluded from salmon waters, but such exclusion 

 would render fishing in some places almost impossible, or at least 

 unprofitable. While the traps are large and numerous in the Colum- 

 bia, and the gill nets man}^ miles in extent, the supply of salmon in 

 that river is kept up by artificial propagation. In the Fraser River 

 region the traps in the sea take vast numbers of salmon, but in the 

 river itself is a perfect thicket of gill nets, especially immediately fol- 

 lowing the short weekly closed season. These conditions and the 

 little attention given to artificial propagation in that region account 

 in large measure for the apparent serious depletion of the Fraser 

 River fisheries. Gill-net or trap fishing affects the suppl}^ of fish on 

 the spawning grounds just in proportion to the number of fish taken. 



