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Show , IB. C. Fishermen's Reserve Now Busy x on Coastal Fatroi r' -"sw t " Mm . v f I - x Tl J r : - ' " A THE fishing season on the West coast won't open until May, but British Columbia fishermen are out .hunting now for bigger catches than salmon or halibut. They're 'after submarines and mines. All up and down Canada's f jorded 'Pacific shores, fishermen members of the Fishermen's Reserve of the Royal Canadian Navy are voluntarily volun-tarily patrolling the seas, protecting protect-ing their own home waters. The ships in which they go to war are the same ones they made their living liv-ing in tiny wooden halibut boats and salmon boats. Organized by far-visioned naval authorities in 1938, the Fishermen's Reserve is playing an invaluable role in the defense of Canada. The through the protecting ring ol British, United States and Canadian warships. It's a 100 per cent fisherman's Job even to the boat. The halibut and salmon boats in the Reserve, valued at about $25,000 each, are owned mainly by their fishermen skippers who rent them to the Navy for an average of $8.00 a day. This, plus salary of $4.75 a day, earned with the rank of coxwaln, is Just about half what a skippei made in peacetime. In a good pre-war season, he would clear between $8,000 and $10,000 for himself. His men would each make about $2,500. They have given up their comfortable peacetime peace-time return for the modest wage hardy British Columbia coast, with its rocky approaches, is the West's greatest natural safeguard. But It must be watched constantly since eome of its inlets could serve as hideouts if submarines slipped of an Able seaman. But their sacrifice is nothing compared with the satisfaction they get from accomplishing tMa vital task of maintaining a sea free of prowlers off Canada's West coast |