lined almost altogether to the
State of Washington; but as the
fishing operations increased, the
fish in the banks closer to Seat
tle were depleted and now they
are going farther Westward.
Mr. Hadley. How many pounds
did you say are produced on the
American side
Mr. Lokken. Forty-four milli
on pounds this past year.
Mr. Hadley. And on the other
side how many
Mr. Lokken. Nine million.
Mr. Davenport. A rather large
percentage of our total is landed
at Prince Rupert.
Mr. Lokken. Twenty-one mil
lion pounds are landed at Prince
Rupert; 13,000,000 pounds at Se
Seattle, Washington, and 9,000
000 pounds in Alaska.
Mr. Davenport. Does Canada
object to your landing fish at
Prince Rupert?
Mr. Lokken. There has been
objection a number of times but
only on the part of the Canadian
fishermen alone.
Mr. Davenport. If you had to
land your catch at Seattle, would
Si mean additional cost of oper
ation?
Mr. Lokken. It could not be
done, because the run from Se
attle is something like 1,200
miles, and only on rare occasions
can that be done; that is, when
a vessel will catch the larger
part of its trip in two or three
days and will have sufficient
speed to come to Seattle in a
short time.
Mr. Davenport. Suppose they
should shut you out of Prince
Rupert; what would you do?
Mr. Lokken. We would just
have to tie up.
Mr. Ramseyer. Your organiza
tion wants no change in para
graph 717?
Mr. Lokken. No change.
(Mr. Lokken submitted the fol
lowing brief:
Brief of the Fishing Vessel
Owners Association
To the Committee on Ways and
Means,
House of Representatives:
The Fishing Vessel Owners
association comprising about 90
per cent of the Northwestern
American halibut fleet respect
fully invite your attention to a
proposed change in the present
tariff law which, if adopted, will
seriously cripple the halibut in
dustry, which is very valuable to
Washington State and Alaska,
and the means by which we
make our livlihood, and in which
we have over one and one-half
million dollars invested.
We refer to a proposal by the
Commercial Club of Ketchikan,
Alaska, the effect of which would
be to require fish taken from the
v, aters of the north Pacific
Ocean by American fishermen in
American bottoms and consigned
to eastern American markets to
be shipped to such markets over
all American routes, or in bond
from an American port. This
end would be accomplished by
placing a duty on all American
caught fish marketed at a Cana
dian port. The purpose of this
proposal is to prevent the sale
of American halibut at Prince
Rupert, British Columbia, and to
compel the sale of such fish in
Ketchikan, Alaska. This would
be impractical, and would be
ruinous to the halibut industry
as we will attempt to show.
During the past year, which is
an average one, our American
halibut was landed in the vari
ous localities according to the
following figures, which are tak
en from the Bureau of Fisheries,
Statistical Bulletin No. 810.
• • • • Pounds
Alaska. 9,623,700
Prince Rupert.21,177,169
Seattle.13,734,395
The largest portion of fish
landed in Alaska was landed in
Ketchikan. Exact figures are
not available at present.
The larger portion of fish
landed in Prince Rupert and
Ketchikan comes from the banks
in the Gulf of Alaska, and to the
westward of Kodiak Island, some
700 miles from Ketchikan. It
requires four days for an aver
age halibut schooner to cover the
distance, and in rough weather
it sometimes requires twice this
time. Ketchikan is located on
an island in the southeastern
part of Alaska, and Prince Ru
pert is located 90 miles away in
northwestern British Columbia
The two towns are separated by
the rough waters of Dixon En
trance. Ketchikan, because of
its location on an island, must
ship all fish out by steamer.
I'rince Rupert, which is the ter
ninous of the Canadian Nation
al Rai’way. ships its fish by rail
to the distribution centers in the
eastern United States.
At the present time the only
established transportation facil
ities between Ketchikan and
Prince Rupert consist of service
supplied by C. P. R. vessels which
make the trip between the two
cities about once a week, and a
small motor ship which runs as
traffic permits. This service is
entirely inadequate, which fact
is admitted by the proponents of
this tariff change. They pro
pose, however, to provide ade
quate facilities following the en
actment of the desired law.
Is it just to the fishermen and
fair to the great industry to
assume that the expenditure of
millions of dollars will follow the
enactment of the law? An as
sumption such as this is unfair
and can not survive an investi
gation into the fact. Ketchikan
and Prince Rupert are separated
by 90 miles of notoriously rough
and dangerous water. About 27
miles of this course—across Dix
on Entrance—is extremely dan
gerous during frequent storms
and no vessel except one fit for