“Sec. 9. It shall be unlawful to
operate any cannery within the
jurisdiction of the United States
in Alaska unless a report shall
have been filed with the Secre
tary of Commerce not later than
December 1 of the preceding
calendar year, stating the pro
posed place or location of opera -
tion, nor shall such a cannery
bo operated in more than one
place or location in any calen
dar year: Provided, That in re
spect to operations in 1932 the
required information regarding
place or location of operations
may be filed within thirty days
after approval of this act.”
Sec. 2. The second paragraph
of section 1 of such act is a
mendecl to read as follows:
“It shall be unlawful to im
port or bring into any place
subject to the jurisdiction of the
United States, for purposes
other than for personal use and
net for sale or barter, salmon
from waters outside the juris
diction of the United States
north of 54 degrees and 40 min
utes north latitude, taken during
any closed period provided for by
this act or regulations made
thereunder.”
The majority report approves
the foregoing bill and recom
mends that it do pass.
A somewhat similar bill was
introduced by Mr. Welch of Cali
fornia in the Seventy-first Con
gress, third session, H. R. 16480,
Report No. 2480, referred to the
Committee on Merchant Marine
and Fisheries, reported favor
ably, but did not become a law.
It was again introduced in this
Congress by Mr. Welch, and ex
tensive hearings held on it by
the committee. Many witnesses
from Alaska appeared in op
position toi the bill and a cloud
of telegrams and letters and
petitions signed by Alaska fish
ermen were filed before the com
mittee in opposition to its ap
proval or passage. No witness or
telegram or petition from the
people or fishermen of Alaska
was heard in its favor and it was
vigorously opposed by the resi
dent fishermen of Alaska, both
union and nonunion.
Limit of the Hearings
While the bill on its face ap
pears to be general in its appli
cation in Alaska fisheries, all the
witnesses supporting and oppos
ing the bill confined their testi
mony to that part of the Alaska
fisheries and fishing conditions
on Bristol Bay. This bay lies
immediately north of the Alaska
Peninsula, and by reason of the
natural conditions there and the
character of the fish resorting to
the salmon spawning streams
entering its waters, is the most
valuable salmon fishery in Alas
ka, and probably in the world.
But little consideration was giv
en in the hearings to any Alaska
fisheries outside of Bristol Bay,
and it may fairly be said that
the bill was drafted and sup
ported by the non-resident can
nery companies engaged in the
Bristol Bay area for the protec
tion of their special interests
there.
The proponents of the bill
stated that it had its origin with
the Alaska Packers Association,
a San Francisco fishing corpora
tion, with canneries in Bristol
Bay. This company is a subsidi
ary of the California Packing
Corporation, also having V,s
common headquarters in San
Francisco. It is one of the largest
fruit, fish, and food canning
corporations in America, ovjning
and operating many other sub
sidiary companies on the Pacific
coast, and in various parts of
the United States, Canada, and
the Philippine Islands.
Monopoly in the Bristol Bay
Fisheries
The hearings on this bill show
that Bristol Bay is the narrow
channel through which the most
valuable variety of Alaska salm
on reaches their natural spawn
ing beds in the rivers tributary
to its waters. This variety of
salmon is known to the trade
and in common parlance as reds
or sockeyes. These are the most
desirable and highest priced
salmon on the American market,
and Bristol Bay is, by far, the
greatest single producer of this
particular fish on the Alaska
coast. A case of canned salmon
contains forty-eight 1-pound
cans. The average market price
of Alaska reds is $10 per case,
while other varieties of canned
salmon average two, three, or
more dollars per case below reds.
Out of a total of 1,183,001
cases of salmon packed on Bris
10I Bay in 1931, there were 1,
107,725 cases of reds packed,
equal to 93 per cent of the total.
This pack of Bristol Bay reds
had a total market value of
$11,000,000 and this average
pack value for that bay has held
good for many years The red
pack from Bristol Bay consti
tutes about one-fifth of the en
tire Alaska pack of canned
salmon. For nearly 25 years
there have been about 25 can
neries on Bristol Bay, canning
reds. These canneries are located
cn the bay or river shore, at
points where there is good an
chorage and an abundance of
fresh-water streams, both of
which are indispensable in car
rying on fish-cannery work.
Very early in the history of
canning reds on this bay the
nonresident cannery companies
saw their opportunity for mo
nopolizing this business by secur
ing the ownership of shore can
nery sites, since each new can
nery naturally divided the sup
ply of fish coming yearly into
that bay. After locating and
constructing canneries on 22
cannery sites, they adopted a
shrewd system of acquiring a
complete monopoly of the bay
and the fish resorting to it in
this way: They made a careful
examination of the shores of the
bay and streams emptying into