Excellent Hying Weather
Aids Study < >f Fish Habits
Amid clear skies and very little
wind, the Fish and Wildlife Ser
vice plane took off in the early
■afternoon Saturday. It was a rou
tine flight for Monte Clemens and
Bill Omdahl of the Service, but 1
went along as an observer.
By way of introduction, Monte
Clemens is assistant to Roy Lind
sley, having come up here from
Southeastern. He has been here
only a short while, but has a
pretty good grasp of the commer
cial fishing aspects of this area al
ready.
Bill Omdahl. also of Southeast
ern, was our pilot in the flight
He has been with the FWS only
a short time. He is an old-time
Alaskan pilot and does know how
to operate an airplane.
I learned something of the work
of these men who have only one
desire in their never ending task
to improve the once great fishing
industry of the island, and bring
it back to a semblance of its fabu
lous past. •
The routine flight such as wt
made Saturday, takes these men tt
the little isolated streams that are
found everywhere on the Island
There are altogether about twenty
three stream watchers and foui
weirs. The stream watcher carries
on a lonely vigil, and by a dian
kept religiously, which indicates
the fish trends, the escapement
facts that furnish the data or
which a study is made of th<
habits of salmon.
At the more important weirs
biologists trap the salmon, meas
ure them for length, remove <
scale for further study, and by ob
servation, determine their condi
tion, their growth and habits. Bui
more about that later.
Our first stop was at Litnik
where Earl Stevens maintains <
lonely watch. He is a young Okla
homan, with a couple of oil wells
back home on his farm. While ht
sits around and waits for his royal
ty checks to come in, he chose t<
come to Kodiak for the summei
and enjoy a carefree life in th<
wilds—what more could you as!
than that?
After leaving Earl a few staph
goods—some eggs, milk ant
bread—we took off once more
this time heading for the Ugal
Bay area. We flew over Hiddei
Basin, thence to Karluk River, ant
came down at the weir situated or
that river. There is quite a popu
lation of biologists located at the
weir. The layman would of coursi
think of salmon in numbers only
but there are so many phases t<
this business of salmon propaga
tion—cycles, growth, population
ft
feeding and other sea life that
preys on them—these and many
more studies that require consid
erable research. This work is be
ing done at Karluk by the research
branch of the FWS. Dr. Royce is
the research biologist in charge.
He was not at the weir when we
arrived, but Charles Concle of Cal
ifornia was temporarily in charge.
He is a young biologist, making a
study for the North Pacific Fish
eries Board. ^ I watched him and
Ray Cramer, 'also of California, as
they dipped salmon out of the
trap, took measurements, pulled a
scale from the fish’s side, which
they attached to a numbered book
page. The fish were handled with
rubber gloves and were returned
to the water after the operation.
The Karluk weir is about 288
feet long. The fabulous catches,
and escapements of bygone years,
of course, are never duplicated
anymore, but Concle and Cramer
state few fish have so far come up
the river. Few fish and lots of
gnats. Ray said he will probably
leave there after this summer
with a perpetual twitch, fighting
off the little flying demons. We
left John Greenman, a stickleback
biologist who accompanied us from
Kodiak, at the weir and proceeded
on our way.
Bill next sat the plane down in
Karluk Lagoon, and we were met
by John Q. Hihes, a stream watch
er stationed at Kafluk village. The
time spent at the village was most
enjoyable and interesting. There
we met John Cunningham, book
keeper for APA, Axel Carlson, Su
perintendent of the APA opera
tions at Karluk, and Alex Brown,
storekeeper and postmaster.
Alex is an old time resident at
Karluk and has been around. By
that we don’t mean he is old, for
he is not. He has so many interests
that he will likely stay “young” a
good many years yet. He has
thousands of slides and many feet
of movie film of that area, includ
ing the Island and Alaska also. He
: is now about to take up a new hob
by—spinning, of all things.
We witnessed the tail end of a
beach seine operation as we land
ed. This proved to be the best haul
, of the season—about four or five
; hundred fish.
i We had a few minutes conversa
1 tion with Axel Carlson, who has
been coming to Karluk since 1912.
There is no doubt he knows a
thing or two about fish. He said
■ so far this year the winds have
, been northerly and westerly. “The
> winds have to be southerly,
■ southeasterly or the fish won’t
, come in.” He could probably spin
1 Ton Trucks — Get you there.
IMMEDIATE DELIVERY
TO DOCK SEATTLE
Rock Bottom prices on all
Willys-Jeep line
New higher
horse power engines
Clarks Garage-Jeep Dealer
Phone 3444
—"i- 11 ■ - K-i. I v«
many-a fish y»-n^)i£«.1$lliJoBe life
told about the haul in 1952 illus
trated: why men return- to>‘fishing
every year; Therewere no'fish-^
catches Were mediocre—tin tit'he
happened to spot a’ Mg school: 'as
he was sauntering around. ' He
alerted several fishermen, end of
two boats that brought in the haul,
each fisherman netted $1100 for
the days work—nice work if you
can do it. Carlson’s information on
fishing is considered very reliable.
His 44 years of experience in these
waters should make him an author
ity.
Monte and Bill then decided to
do some patroling along the Sheli
kof side of the Island, dropping in
at Terror Bay, where mail and pro
visions were given to Ed Johnston,
stream watcher there.
We almost forgot to mention a
big Bruin was seen loping along—
my first sight of one fairly close.
Kodiak Island, seen from a
Grauman Goose, presents a very
mountainous terrain. In fact it is
nearly all hills and mountains.
There are brush covered areas,
and grassy slopes. The mountains
are from three to four thousand
feet high, and most of them have
snow patches even at this time
of the year. At Karluk the tops of
the mountains are tundrous and
the lower areas grass and brush.
Cancer Drive
1st Of August]
The annual Cancer Drive in Ko
diak will start August 1 and con
tinue until August 18, it was an
nounced by Mrs. Jack Hinckel,
General Chairman for the Kodiak
area. Chairman in charge of the
drive has not yet been appointed.
A 21 inch Zenith TV set will be
given away this year in the drive
to secure funds. Tickets are now
being printed. A tag day will be
held August 4. The drive will con
clude with a public dance at the
Elks Club August 18.
CARD OF THANKS
We wish to thank the many
friends who erpressed sympathy
and assisted us during our recent
bereavement.
(s) Mrs. John Lawhead
Mr. and Mrs. Don Lawhead &
family
Mr. and Mrs. Harold Lawhead
& family
The average age of the repre
sentatives in the 84th Congress is
51.3 years.
Sofl Drinks [- Mixers
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Speed Bar [Flavor Extracts
[Kodiak Bottling Works
i ItR
f * s+tdP
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Make us your gift shopping headquarters
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Lamp Shades — To fit your Table, Floor, or
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f Cut Flowers Plants Bacords T
Hours—Weekdays 9-6 Friday 10*
'Phone 2631 ^______
Good Buys
for
Small Frys
Play Clothes.
COTTONS for
Summer wear,
as well as
Swin Suits for
the entire family.
TVy T)apl.
KODIAK AIRWAYS, INC.
Phone 4201
PASSENGERS
FREIGHT
CHARTER
Mail service to all Kadiak Island puints
Aircraft-Instrument repair service
Office and Hangar: Tagura Road
Serving Kodiak Island Area with Dependable Airline Service
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