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Show AGAINST SEINING. Commissioner Newell Enters a Logical Protest. THE SUPPLY OF TROUT I In Utah Liks Has Be6a Keduced Nlne-Dty-Five Per cent. While the Common i figh Haye Been Reduced Eitehty-Five J Per cent Game Fish Not Thrown Back To the Editor of Ths Evening Dispatch: IPnuvo, Utah, Feb. 20. 1 have read a number ot communications in Salt Lake papers on lishin? and note that with one exception they all agree in favor of eeining. Permit me to present for your consideration a few arguments and facts on the other side of this very :j important question, i 1 have been commissioner of Utah I county for the two years last past, and I am therefore in a position to under J stand fairly the workings ofthe6sh I business in Utah lake. Tnere is but a j f very limited number of fleh taken from the waters of Utah lake other than l those taken with the 6eine, and let me i here Bay that bo far as I can learn all I that has been published in favor of seining has come from those directly ' interested in the profits of the busi- ! ness, and they claim that all opposi tion seining comes from the spoittng fraternity who want the waters ot Utah lke entirely for their pleasure. The seiners are the only ones who can take from the lake the common 1 lien, and they will claim, and I agree with them, that the common lis h has been reduced eighty per cent, in the last twenty five years, but at the same time it is just as certain that the trout have been reduced ninety-five per cent, not altogether by the seine, bat no oae can successfully dispute the fact that they have taken their full share of them. Th seiners sav that if von stoD the seine the poor people will be deprived i of the common lish. That is very true and ttie question resolves itself into this: Will the poor people be deprived temporarily of the common ti3b, and in j time have an ample supply of bath I game and common hsh, or continue tLe I use ot the seine and in a very short 1 time be permanently deprived of botn J except in a very limited quantity, and I at a night price, so high, in fact, that J they will become a lurxury to the poor people? There is not an old settler in j the land, who knows anything about i this subject, who will not say that be- fore the seines were extensively used I in our waters that there was an anund-, ( ant supply of both trout and common fish within the easy reach of both poor and rich, and that for over twenty years the supply has been gradually reduced in our lakes, and the price correspondingly advanced until un-til today trout that was once within reasonable reach of the poor has now become so advanced in price that they are a luxury to the rich? It is a fact that our system of irrigation is the greatest source of the fry destruction, I but after they have once found their way into the lake there can bo no question but that the seine is the most deadly enemy known to both our game i and common lish. There is an ample supply of food in oar fresh water Uke3 for ten thousand times as many game listi as are now there, and in view of all the history of j the past, wisdom would certainly sug gest that for the best interest of "the fu ture our lake be given a reasonable rest, and our fish be given an opportunity oppor-tunity to recuperate from the slaughter slaugh-ter of the last twenty-five years. Seiners protest that in making their hauls ibey throw back into the waters the game fieh thev have gathered, However solemnly they may wage this claim, I know that it is not true, and they never will do it so long as they are permitted to ply their business in our waters, unless there is a government govern-ment agent, or some one whom they fear, present and watrh each haul, and the only way in my opinion that they will ever be compelled to comply with the law in this regard, is for some one veste i with authority under the law, to be present at each haul made, and carffally watch all that ia done and see that the law is complied with. To do this means a man to each of the eighteen seines now running in Utah lake, an expense the taxpayers, I think, will not feel disposed to meet, and which cannot be met in any con sis tent and just manner, except by a tax upon each seine eufficient to cover the cost. I have been accused of permitting men living in Provo to use unlawful Beines, and in regard to that 1 will say that every seine used in Utah lake Is deficient in some particular. M. C. Meavkll, Fish and Game Commissioner of Utah Oountv. |