Tlie Salmon Fishing Outlook
Director Offers Small Ray Of Nope
For Renewed Bristol Bay Fishing
The new Soviet proposal to the
Japanese to curtail their fishing
on the high seas offers the “one
faint spark of hope’* in the Bristol
Bay fisning problem, according
to C. L. Anderson, director of the
Alaska Department of Fish and
Game.
Anderson’s remark came during
the hearings of the Committee on
Interstate and Foreign Commerce
held at Juneau. He spoke April 1.
Except for a prohibited area off
Northern Kamchatka, the Japa
nese have, in the past, been free
to Cish throughout the Pacific,
west of 175 degree West longitude
between May 1 and August 10
and within certain tonnage limits.
The now Soviet proposal would
drastically curtail both areas and
time.
The areas open to Japanese sal
mon fishing would be reduced by
approximately 80% and the time
by over one-half.
The 1958 Japanese catch quota
as set by Russia was 110.000 tons
of salmon of all species. The ac
tual catch exceeded this by 145
tons. The Russians now propose a
Japanese catch quota for 1959 of
only 30,000 tons, with not more
than 10,000 tons of this being red
salmon.
The present International Con
vention for the High Seas Fish
eries of the North Pacific Ocean,
as the agreement between Cana
da, the United States and Japan,
is known, came into force June 12,
1953, and a formal organizational
meeting was held February 1-12,
1954. Under terms of the treaty,
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a policy making commission was
created with four representatives
from each of the three.
Among other provisions, each
•nation may establish an Advisory
Committee and employ such sci
entific and other experts as it
may require.
“The primary objective, as spel
led out in the convention.” accord
ing to Anderson, “is to ‘ensure
the maximum sustained produc
tivity of the fishery resources) of
the bforth Pacific Ocean,’ and
that each of the Pairties should
assume an obligation, on a free
and equal footing, to encourage
the conservation of such resour
ces.”
As a part of the treaty, the
“Principle of Abstention” was
established. In line with this
principle, Japan agreed to ab
stain from salmon fishing off the
coasts of Canada and the United
States east of the provisional line
of 175 degrees West longitude,
which line passes through the
western extremity of the Atka Is
land in the Aleutian chain.
When the provisional line at
175 degrees was established, ac
cording to Anderson, there was
every reason to believe it would
be an equitable line. At the orga
nizational meeting in 1954, the
Commission agreed upon a broad
program of research on the sal
mon of the North Pacific.
“At the outset,” Anderson sta
ted, “little was known about the
distribution and migration of the
salmon of the North Pacific. Much
to the surprise of most of us, but
perhaps not to the Japanese, it
was soon learned that the various
species of salmon were widely
distributed across the entire Paci
fic from -the North American
coast to the Asian shore.”
Research carried on in recent
years is aimed toward segration,
on the high seas, of salmon of
North American origin from those
of Asian origin. In simple terms,
this is accomplished by (1) The
study of the anatomical structure
and the body proportions of the
salmon; (2) Analyses of the
scales; (3) Presence or absence of
certain parasites; (4) Serology, or
the study of blood types; and (5)
high seas tagging.
“In addition,” Anderson stated,
“One might add the presence of
net-marked salmon in American
streams. This in itself is a form
of tagging done unwittingly by
the Japanese fishermen on the
high seas.”
By means of this research, it is
now known that there is a wide
zone of intermingling of Asian
and American salmon along the
line of 175 degrees West longi
tude. The zone of intermingling is
estimated roughly to be 1,000
miles wide. ' -* • • ■
It has been determined that- a
considerable part of the Bristol
Bay red salmon feed and rear
west of the provisional line, like
wise, there is a large migration
of matures through the passes
west of the line, north into the
Bering Sea and then east to Bris
tol Bay. Experts state that it is
this large section of the run that
is highly vulnerable to the Japa
nese high seas fisheries. During
the 1957 season it has been estima
ted that the Japanese fishermen
caught between 8,000,000 and 10,
000,000 red salmon in about two
weeks in this area, most of which
were headed for Bristol Bay.
Director Anderson then asked
the question: “Is it any wonder,
then, that the salmon fishermen
of Bristol Bay are worried? . . .
Very soon, now, every red salmon
that escapes the Japanese fishery
will be returned for seed stock in
the streams and lakes of Bristol
Bay in order to perpetuate this
high seas fishery for Japan.”
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