Show FISHING IS OLDEST AMERICAN INDUSTRY efficiently protected by government bureau washington D C a although jobs are scarce and wages low in many parts of 0 the united states hundreds of indians and other local salmon fishermen living along the coast of alaska feel sure of having more work and better incomes next summer than they have had for years this bit of seeming economic magic will flow from a goern government ment ruling by the united states commissioner of fisheries who has opened up bays and inlets along the alaskan coast for se luing the plan says a bulletin from the national geographic society will not mean the taking of more salmon in alaskan waters and may even mean the catching of fewer but it will shift to a considerable extent the method of capturing the first from the file offshore off shore traps that require the attention of only a few skilled operators to the boat operated beins of the individual and needy fishermen the obvious need of the local fishermen for some sort of assistance during the present economic conditions was an important factor in the lifting of beining seining restrictions by the bureau of fisheries but the move was possible only because of the building up of the runs of salmon during the past nine years by the bureaus stringent control the activities of the bureau of fisheries are many sided for it looks after all sorts of chores most of them involving scientific investigations that have to do with the amazingly varied life of uncle sams coastal waters and streams in alaska which is a federal territory the organization Is a benefi clent dictator industry faced collapse dictatorships are not nodules no eUles in 1933 they were in 1924 when congress gave the bureau dictatorial powers in alaskan waters as a sort of last effort to save the salmon industry from collapse the system was untried and furthermore it was vastly unpopular with the fishermen and salmon packers packers had not taken the trouble as the bureaus scientific workers had to study the life cycle of the salmon they looked on the explanations of the peculiar scientific facts behind salmon runs as mere moonshine figuratively the bureau had to hold bold the packers and fishermen back with one hand and to coax the salmon up op the freshwater fresh water spawning streams with the other meanwhile praying for time to prove their scientific deductions the runs of the same cycles had bad been growing progressively smaller but there were enough big runs from other cycles occurring between to obscure the ominous fact that alanskas rich salmon resources were were being exhausted the packers had literally been killing their golden egg laying geese by not r permitting er enough fish to get to the spawning grounds by the bureaus regulations since 1924 1024 the situation has been reversed more afore fish are getting into the spawning streams and the salmon industry Is again on the up grade in the eastern united states the fishing industry Is hoary with age it was americas first industry in fact the bureau of fisheries has found much work to do in keeping its finger on the pulse of conditions that might make or break the industry under high powered modern methods and in solving fundamental problems that affect the food supplies of tens of millions of people saves seal industry another piece of pioneer work in the government laboratories was the demonstration that very quick freezing of fish ash assured a much better product than ordinary freezing and one that would ship better the lowly oyster of the atlantic coast has had its domestic life thoroughly investigated by the bureau of fish erles cries and as a result its housing problems are arc in a fair way to be solved in bringing about a come blackfor back for the exceedingly valuable island seal the bureau has done its most spectacular piece of work and has written one of the most dramatic chapters in the whole story of 0 conservation whether on land or sea the seal herds were fast being wiped out of existence by deep sea hunters when in 1911 treaties with japan and great britain made the united states trustee for the three nations in caring for the animals which breed annually on the bilof islands the job was turned over to the bureau and in 22 years it has built the herd up fr from ora to by sale of pelts taken under scientific management from surplus males it has paid into the united states treasury and in addition has paid more than each to japan and canada close to 90 00 per cent of the worlds fur seats seals now live under government protection on the bilot bilof islands in streams scattered over the united states the bureaus work Is helping the states to build up a game fish supply for the anglers who annually bait hooks books and cast ca flies |