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Show A Protest. To the editor of Ths Dispatch: I have heard that there will be an effort made to stop seining in Utah i lake lor two or four years Such legie-j legie-j laiion would not only te unjust to the public, as it would deprive them of at ! least one half million pounds of common com-mon lish (suckers, chubs, carp, etc., the present surplus fish in Utah lake and other places, and the only fish food that is within reach of the common people,) but it would also be destructive destruc-tive to the fishery itself, as it would till the lake again with suckers and chubs, the same as it was years ago when no imported fish could exist in Utah lake for any length ot time. To ail appearances, there are now about twenty per cent of stickers and chubs left in the lake, the Seins having taken the eighty per cent, and the peo-p peo-p e have had the benefit of them. Tlie lake is now well stocked with cam and block bass. There are millions of them and they have come to stay, for there is plenty of room for them now. liut where are the two millions of shad I and salmon placed in the lake several j years ago? The carp are twice as good as the suckers or chubs, and those who I are acquainted with the bass know that the bass are but little inferior to I the trout, and the finest of game fish. Now let us consider the trout, i he best of all known fish. I suppose that if a Jaw is passed it will be in the vain hope that thereby the Utah lake may be stocked wito trout, hut from forty years' study and piacticai experience I am confident that under the present existing conditions no such result I may be obtained. The stoppage of j seining alone will not increase the i number ot tr jut in Utah 1: e .10 per cent in fifty years. The reasons are these: By nature the trout must go up theotreams to spawn. They go up l'rovo river and other streams b3T thousands thou-sands every spring and in the moun-ta:n moun-ta:n brook9 !ay their egs; aft'-r the hatching eeaeon, old and young, all tint have escaped the vaiions means that pooitsnif n liave invented and the catastrophes incident to their nature, j go down toward the lake, when they j get so far down they meet with solid j dams across the stream at the head of ! canals, ihey go into these canals, from i them into irrigating ditches, and on to ! the land where they perish. Thus not more than ten per cent, of all ever reach the lake. Nothing but a hatchery hatch-ery will successfully counteract this j destruction. Trout can be produced ' here at a very small cost, and we can stock our lake to our hearts' content , and still not deprive the people of their j supply of common fish, j These are the principal points as re-I re-I gards the fish and fisheries of Utah, I and expressly of Utah county. For j these points I will vouch, and I thal-i thal-i lenge intelligent and successful con-i con-i tradiction. ; A great deal more information on I this important subject can and will be gladly given if the honorable legislature legisla-ture so desires, and will notify me when and where to meet the committee commit-tee on lisn aDd gam&. I desire to have the present fish and game law amended, but in a sensible manner. I have quit fishine several years ago, but am as much interested in this, our best resource as ever. I desire to live to see Utah lake a fish pond second to none in the United States, and it can furely be made so. Respectfully, Petek Hansen Sr. Lake View, January 19, 1894. i |