lations in spite of what the law
says.
After he makes his first drat),
he goes to San Francisco aucl
to Seattle Washington, and there
calls together conferences of
'‘those interested in Alaska fisi -
eries” as he terms it, but in
leality the cannery and trap in
terests which you have defend
ed. In theory, we can go there.
Practically, we cannot go be
cause we have not the money.
After these conferences, Mr.
O’Malley publishes the regula
tions detrimental to our form
of gear.
Examples
The regulation which prohib
ited trolling with power boats
during January, February and
March of each year was so pub
lished. After much argument,
Mr. O’Malley finally admitted
*Feb. 23, 1920) that “the closed
season of three months from
January 1 through March 31 is
less effective as a conservation
measure than at first contem
plated.” As a matter of fact,
this regulation is an insane one
promulgated without informa
tion of any kind by a person to
tally ignorant of salmon trolling
in Alaska and based partly if not
wholly on fagging experiments
conducted about Vancouver Is
land more than 300 miles from
our nearest waters. In speaking
about, the force of these experi
ments, Mr. O’Malley said (Jan.
23, 1929) “If the same thing ap
plies in the Alaska troll fishery”
etc. But why soak us on a guess
especially when we know from
personal experience that this
closing order has absolutely NO
value as a conservation meas
ure.
The Hook-Off
Without notice to resident
fishermen of Alaska, Mr. O’Mal
ley prohibited the “Hook-off”
with seines. I wonder if you
know what that means or why
our people were forced to this
device for fishing. The fact is
■ his—all our seining grounds are
closed “in the interest of conser
ation” and so we are forced to
fish in the open channels and
waters which are favorable only
to trap fishing. The essential
difference is this, traps fish suc
cessfully only where the fish are
moving hence traps are placed
where the tides are strong and
swift. Seines fish normally on
Iy where the tide is slack and
where the fish have already
schooled. When our seines were
forced out into the trap areas,
we had to do exactly as they do
—put out a lead from the shore
and force the fish to school. This
is called the “hook-off.” Mr.
O’Malley without notice to us
prohibited us from doing pre
cisely what he permits the fish
trap to do—run a lead to the
shore. Indeed when he did
come to Alaska, we called a
meeting and invited him to at
tend. He refused on the excuse
that he was scheduled to go to
Anon Creek “to inspect the
weir” and then “to catch the
tide at Wrangell Narorws.”
Since the government dredged
the Narrows, even the large
steamers can pass without hav-'
ing “to catch the tide.” This ex
cuse is not legitimate because
untrue.
Tenalcee Inlet
If you will look at the map,
you will see that this is a long
protected bay about 30 miles
long. When this bay was clos
ed, the seiners were totally de
prived of their catch of fish go
ing to this bay (180,000 accord
ing to the Bureau of Fisheries
figures for that year). The three
traps within the restricted area
merely moved out and found
positions from which they not
only caught their former amount
tut also the amounts thereto
fore caught by the seiners. In
ether words, Conservation by
fceiners Only—and Henry O’Mal
It y knows this for we have pro
tested before.
Saginaw Bay
Saginaw Bay is one of the
principal and ancient fishing
p rounds of the 300 natives who
live at Kake. It is on the north
v est end of Kuiu Island. In the
interest of conservation this bay
was closed to Pt. Cornwallis.
This put both the seines and
traps out of business so that no
body caught any fish. For some
mysterious reason, the line on
the north shore was moved to
ward the inner bay a distance of
} 0C0 yards. The Alaska Consol
j lated Canneries (really the
flank of California) placed its
trap in the newly opened area,
end have caught around ONE
MILLION fish annually while
tlit, Natives were able to catch
NONE: Suppose, Mr. McKeown,
you were a native of Kake and
l lr. O’Malley allowed a large
non-resident corporation to
catch hundreds of thousands of
salmon and stopt you from
catching ten thousand all in the
name of “conservation,” would
n’t you feel that this was dis
crimination? Or would you say
that it was all right out of your
friendship for Mr. Henry O’Mal
ley, the perpertrator of this dis
crimination?
Kasaan Bay
This is a large bay on the east
ride of Prince of Wales Island.
Look at your map. The bay
has several large tributaries. Mr.
O Malley will show you that on
ly a small portion of this huge
bay is closed to fishing, but he
does not inform you that as to
the seiners there, it is a closure
of the entire bay from Pt. Grin
dell to Island Point because the
only places where the seiners
can catch fish with their type of
gear are closed. THE CON
TRAST. However two huge