m -
Fish Management
(Continued from Page 2)
full autonomy, and an inheritance:
Some equipment, much of it junk,
and many, many long-term prob
lems requiring immediate action
that would determine results as
much as fifteen, or more years
hence, yet must not too drastically
change the present. Quite a task,
but in surveying a year’s work
since then and the cumulative re
sults, there have been no known
dissenters; Fish and Game has
acquitted itself well.
Roy Rickey leaned back in his
creaky chair, every creak record
ing beautifully on our tape, and
emphasized his statement with pen
cil taps (we get real high-fidelity
on these). “We have only begun
to do the job; it (rehabilitating
Alaska’s fisheries) will take years.
We started out with very little
equipment; for instance, we don’t
even own this building; we’re rent
ing and we’ve already had to build
an office extension in the garage.
We have boats and need a place
to tie them up—these are mostly
skiffs for stream guards, by the
way — but we have no dock, no
warehouse. The old jail is full now.
KODIAK MORTAR CREW — Three members of Kodiak’s Com
pany D, 3rd Battle Group, 297th Infantry, Alaska Army National
Guard try to close out the loud blast of their 81 millimeter mortar at
Fort Richardson’s Eagle Flats Mortar Range.
The Company A guardsmen are currently at Fort Richardson at
tending the annual winter encampment of National Guardsmen and
Reservists from throughout Alaska, held from March 12 - 26.
(U. S. Army Photo)
It’s a good building, yes, but man
agement couldn’t take it over any
way. There’s a hooker on it that
says it’s only for research. It works
out fine; it’s space. We had to take
a torch and cut out a lot of steel
bars first.”
We asked Mr. Rickey if there
were additions to personnel in
preparation for state control? “Oh
yes. From 1958 when we had 25
people to almost 200 people in
1960. Most of that took place just
prior to our taking over. In the
protection division there was no
one except the head of the division
in '59, and those additional men
were all hired in 1959 to do the job
in 1960. That didn’t give them
much time.”
In management, employees are
spread rather thinly throughout a
long sweep of lake and river sys
tems where simultaneous fishing
keeps one man flying constantly in
summer to check and recheck re
peatedly each system in his area.
Roy Rickey continued, “For ins
tance, Dexter Lall has the largest
fishing area in the state, from Kup
reanof Point to the end of the Aleu
tians, and back along the north side
to Cape Menshikof, just short of
Ugashik. He has one assistant and
they obviously cannot cover that
area adequately. We’re asking for
a man to be stationed in Cold Bay.
This area is peculiar in that all the
men live in Kodiak in the winter
time, mainly because of housing
problems out there. We may move
them out there eventually, when
and if we get the housing.’’
The department has one plane, a
Gruman Goose; it hires other small
planes by charter or contract for
the far-flung job of on-the-spot
planning and regulating. The men
who hop from place to place clock
a minimum of 150 hours in light
aircraft every summer; this is ex
clusively for salmon fishing obser
vation and control. King crab, now
a major industry, is yet another
job.
In the research division biolo
gists study catch indices of both
salmon and crab; scales are studied
to determine age and condition of
spawning salmon; salmon are
tagged; their feeding and breeding
habits, and migrations—all are
studied in the lab and in the field
so that management division can
determine where and when manip
ulation of the fisheries must occur,
where and how watershed develop
ment should be undertaken. Alaska
is the only Pacific Coast state that
has a management division.
In his King crab research Guy
Powell has tagged thousands of
King crab, and in one of the most
unique kinds of research practiced
anywhere, he operates a King crab
ranch on the bottom of Chiniak
Bay. Here he does scuba diving tn
water temperatures dose to freez
ing in order to watch the huge
crustacean in his natural surround
ings, corralled on all but the bay
floor by wire mesh. He has learned
their feeding habits, and knows,
for example that they, gourmet
delicasy though they may be, are
far from particular about their own
food, showing a preference only
during their post molting stage. At
that time they eat more starfish,
sand dollars and sea urchins, prob
ably for their calcium content.
(Continued on Page 8)
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