SOCKEYE SALMON

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 90, 13 October 1931, Page 9

SOCKEYE SALMON

RESTORED TO THE FRASER

A GREAT ACHIEVEMENT

(From "The Post's" Representative.) VANCOUVER, Ist September. Ever since the big rock slide into the Eraser Kivev at Hell's Gate in the Rockies almost completely cut off the salmon from their spawning grounds in the lakes and upper reaches of the river, Mr. J. P. Babcock, the greatest living authority on salmon, has persisted in the view that the Frascr could again be made the chief source of supply of the sockeye, the most commercial and edible branch of the numerous salmon family. Proof of his contention is now shown in tho enormous run of salmon in the river, that has puzzled fishermen and cannery operators. It is a direct result of Babcock's efforts in seeding the spawning beds of the river five years ago; from the eggs of that spawning the immense sockeye catch last season was hatched. The river's output was the largest since 1917, and 21 per cent, greater than that 0f.;!1926, the year in which the beds were seeded. The total catch was 455,886 cases, of which 77 per cent, was taken by tho United States from the American portion of the Straits of Juan de Fuca, in tho centro of which the international boundary runs. It is one of the legacies of careless British diplomacy in the determination of the border that tho bulk of tho benefit of Canada's efforts at salmon conservation goes to the State of Washington, which has, down through the years, defied the United States Government in its desire to agree to tho representations of Canada that a conservation treaty bo signed. And, remarkable as it may sound, tho most implacable opposition to the treaty, which has lain unsigned for two years in tho White House, is tho Canadian-born Governor of tho State of Washington. This reason for the phenomenon—the piscatorial, not the political phenomenon—lies in tho extraordinary conditions of tho year 1926, tho only time in twenty years, except 1922, in which the Canadian salmon pack from the Eraser exceeded tho American. The possible explanation is ,that the fish kept north of the international boundary, when entering tho Straits of Juan de Fuca after thoir four-year sojourn in the Pacific. Tho phenomenon is the more remarkable when it is recalled that the salmon, homing to the tiny lake of Shuswap and the Rocky Mountain rivulets that feed the Fraser, get no rest from American fishermen, who trap and net them seven clays a week, whereas, through a desire to conserve their national heritage, Canadian fishermen operate only five days a week, and use tackle of a more sporting type than the Americans. Babcock luis proved that the Eraser, from wliicli the first salmon were exported to Australia and New Zealand nearly 70 years ago, may bo restored to its former prestige. For the moment, Canadd is content with that achievement, and can aft'onl to overlook the banditry methods of her neighbours.