BOTULISM SCARE
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
nected with the food poisoning cases.
For the benefit of Canadian consumers, LeBlanc added that a check of import records from the past several years indicates that none of the Alaskan cannery's products have entered this country.
A spokesman for the U.S. food and drug administration in Seattle revealed August 2 that the suspect can of sockeye originated at a cannery at False Pass on the eastern shore of Unimak Island.
He said the cannery is operated jointly by Peter Pan Seafoods Inc. of Seattle and the Bristol Bay Native Corporation.
The can bore the 'John West' brand label under which large amounts of canned salmon from North America and Japan are marketed in Britain annually by John West Foods of Liverpool, described by one source as a subsidiary of the Lever Bros, multinational.
U.S. authorities say it was packed in July 1977, and shipped to England early this year as part of a consignment of 294 cases, each containing four dozen 7Vfc-ounce cans, purchased by John West Foods.
The four victims of botulism, meanwhile, were reported still to be in critical condition late this week.
After initially singling out canned salmon as the cause of illness, British health authorities
belatedly launched an investigation to determine if the poisoning might be attributable to other items of food eaten at the same meal.
Canned salmon from Canada and the U.S. has seldom if ever been linked to illnesses associated with food spoilage.
"It's been at least 60 years since there was even a hint of anything like this involving U.S. canned salmon," a Seattle food and drug administration spokesman contended.
As for the B.C. product, the record indicates it's enjoyed a consistently clean reputation since the first 300-case shipment was exported to England from a pioneer canning operation at Annieville on the Fraser River 108 years ago.
And since 1889, when the square-rigged sailing ship Titania took the first full cargo of canned salmon from the Fraser around Cape Horn to London, millions of cases have been purchased by British consumers, with no ill effects.
According to Don Wilson of the fisheries department's inspection branch in Vancouver, salmon canning standards are "probably monitored more closely in B.C. than anywhere else in the world."
U.S. inspection standards, he claims, are looser because while salmon processors there must be registered with food and drug agencies, there is no consistent program of mandatory inspection comparable to the one administered in B.C.
SOCKEYE POOR
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
tee spokesman commented gloomily August 3.
"It looks now as if the total run will be in the bottom of the range we cited a few days ago, somewhere between one million and 1.3 million."
The Skeena pink run, however, began strengthening this week with an escapement of 34,000 reported on August 2, up from 19,000 on each of the previous two days.
In the Nass area, where sock-eye returns also have been below predicted levels, pinks are running well above expectations, providing a total catch to August 1 of some 1.2 million fish. With two weeks' fishing still to go, the pink catch should match last year's 1.6 million.
This week's Nass fishery saw 54 seine deliveries in Area 3Z on July 31 producing averages of 4,400 pinks per vessel while 36 deliveries averaged 2,484 pinks the following day.
Averages of between 2,700 and 3,600 pinks were recorded by a smaller fleet of seiners operating in Area 3Y.
Sample gillnet averages showed 183 deliveries in Area 3Z averaging about 110 pinks and 20 sockeye on July 31 while a smaller fleet in Area 3Y the next day recorded averages of 60 pinks and 30 sockeye.
On the south coast, meanwhile, the International Pacific Salmon Fisheries Commission expressed concern over the poor showing of Chilko sockeye and cautious optimism about the Adams run, expected to be the backbone of this year's Fraser salmon fishery.
In convention waters this week, where there was a two-day fishery for both net gears in Area
Maritimes receive enhancement funds
Fisheries Minister Romeo LeBlanc has announced that $1.25 million in Canada Works funding will be devoted to salmon enhancement projects in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland this year.
The money will be spent on several job-creation projects to study the feasibility of new salmon hatcheries and to improve fish habitats in the Maritimes.
8/ THE FISHERMAN — AUGUST 4, 1978
20, Juan de Fuca Strait, a total of 31,000 sockeye was taken. About 120 gillnetters and 75 to 80 seiners were reported fishing the area.
A salmon commission spokesman said this week's catch included Seymour, Adams and Chilko run sockeye, though the latter continued to make a "very light showing" and the Adams has yet to develop strength.
"However, Adams sockeye are starting to show up in substantial numbers in the troll fishery," he said.
On the Fraser River itself, where a one day fishery provided another lean week for gillnetters, 265 deliveries August 1 accounted for just under 10,000 sockeye below Pattullo Bridge for an average of about 38 per boat while 198 deliveries upstream brought in 6,000 sockeye for an average of 30.
Elsewhere on the coast, pink landings by sections of the seine fleet highlighted the fishery.
Averages of more than 2,000 pinks were recorded July 31 by 67 seine deliveries in the Fisher Channel - Fitzhugh Sound portion of Area 8.
In Area 6 on the same date, 13 seine deliveries in the Whale Channel - Campania Sound -Squally Channel section produced averages of some 4,000 pinks per unit, while two deliveries in the Kitasu Bay -^Aristazabal Island area accounted for 7,000 pinks. Milbanke Sound, Area 7, saw 10 seine deliveries averaging about 1,500 pinks per unit.
Some of the better gillnet results were recorded in the Bella Coola gillnet portion of Area 8 where 85 gillnet deliveries July 31 accounted for 17,500 pinks.
Poor catches were the rule in Area 5, where 46 gillnet deliveries July 31 in the Browning Entrance portion came up with averages of less than 30 pinks and 10 sockeye per unit, while 20 deliveries in Principe Channel averaged out at about 35 pinks, 28 sockeye and 20 coho.
Averages of 55 to 60 chums were recorded in 156 gillnet deliveries in Milbanke Sound, on the same date.
Pinks also began showing in fair numbers in portions of Area 12 to the benefit of a small fleet fishing some of the mainland inlets.
Half a dozen seine deliveries in Kingcome Inlet - Wakeman Sound July 31 accounted for 25,500 pinks, for an average of more than 4,000 per vessel, while seven gillnet deliveries averaged 360 pinks. In Thompson Sound -Bond Sound, nine seine deliveries averaged about 3,100 pinks.
* Picketing by Amalgamated Clerks and Shoreworkers Union members Dave Wilson (left) and Ted Schinbein last week won agreement from Oakland Industries of Victoria that it would not handle fish from Prince Rupert Fishermen's Co-op, which locked out the union's members on June 23.
GUILD-EMPLOYER LINKS
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
initiated by B.C. Federation of Labor officers. The inquiry is being conducted by Don Dunphy, retired regional director of the United Steel Workers.
Prince Rupert Labor Council already has taken the step of expelling the guild from its ranks.
Typical of co-op management's intransigent attitude toward its employees in the current dispute was co-op president Peter Wallin's comment, made after ASCU members rejected another take-it-or-leave-it management proposal last week, that "they (shoreworkers) may end up with less than this offer."
(Wallin is a former president of the Deep Sea Fishermen's Union, forerunner of the guild. In 1967,
Wallin, Greene, Dickens and a number of others involved in the present dispute allied themselves with Prince Rupert vessel owners in a concerted effort to break the UFAWU. All were parties to an injunction which resulted in UFAWU officers being jailed and the union heavily fined.)
Also at press time this week, a B.C. Labor Relations Board hearing continued on an application  by  Prince Rupert Co-op
member Vagn Mark for an order prohibiting ASCU members from picketing or taking any other action against the fishing vessel Freeport, jointly owned by Mark and Arthur Stace-Smith of Prince Rupert.
Mark claims that UFAWU shoreworkers are respecting ASCU pickets and unfair lists and are refusing to unload the vessel at organized plants anywhere in B.C.
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