From page 1
FRESHWATER
On Lesser Slave Lake in northern Alberta, between 60 and 70 fishing families tied up their boats June 10, also demanding 40 cents a pound for their fish. They are currently being paid nine to 19 cents.
The lake was due to. close to commercial fishermen June 28 and remain closed until August. Pro-tem leader Stan Beattie said the strike may continue then. Both he and Alex Morin, president of the Northwest Territories Fishermen's Federation, were at the Ottawa meeting to seek CLC support.
They have considerable grounds for optimism. The CLC feels that union organization is the sole means by which the northern fishermen can escape their perennial problems of disastrously low prices, restrictive fishing regulations and the crushing monopoly power of the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation.
"We're disposed to assist in the organization of the fishermen," Nichol reported Joe Morris as saying.
Nichol said the CLC recognizes that the number of lake fishermen has declined drastically, while the corporation has definitely not served their interests.
"The need for organization in all the freshwater fishery was fully discussed," Nichol related. "The main question was how this could be done. We said we couldn't do it ourselves. There is an apparent need for a lot more information. The CLC wants to know the number of fishermen involved, the areas of concentration, how the marketing corporation operates, and so on."
Another meeting has been set for some time this October after the CLC executive has had a chance to examine the matter more thoroughly. The UFAWU, meanwhile, will offer its assistance through CLC representative Wes Norheim, based in Regina.
In a dispatch to The Fisherman July 3, Stan Beattie recounted the success of a fish sale striking fishermen organized in Edmonton.
"The whole operation was a success," he reported. "We were able to prove to the rest of Alberta and to the president of the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation that we meant business."
A rented freezer unit was set up in the parking lot of the Edmonton trade union centre. Radio advertising and the bargain prices the fish were sold at brought lineups. Two truck loads of fish were sold within hours.
"Our expenses were very high, in that we had to rent everything," Beattie recounted. "Yet I was able to pay the fishermen 35 cents a pound for whitefish that the corporation was paying them only 19 cents for."
He said that five weeks ago he visited 11 major food outlets in Edmonton but found fresh Alberta whitefish for sale in only one of them. "There they were selling it for $1.29 a pound while fishermen are only receiving between nine and 19 cents a pound," he wrote.
"I asked the store clerks why they didn't handle fresh white-fish, and they said they couldn't buy any. Yet at that time at least one truck load every two days was coming into Edmonton from Lesser Slave Lake.
"The Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation is a corrupt crown corporation," he concluded. "It has been from the start, and we have no reason to believe that it has changed. Its buying agents such as George Helmer of Hay River, NWT and Walter Kune of Faust are set up as little dictators for the corporation. Fishermen are told to fish for these prices or starve.
"Maybe help is coming. Let's hope it won't come too late. Inland lake fishermen cannot carry this fight alone, but we will let it be known that we tried."
From page 1
CATCH REPORT
average deliveries of 111 sockeye, 34 coho, 444 pinks, 66 chums and 31 springs.
Area 7 was the scene of two days fishing. A total of 48 gill-netters made average deliveries of 75 sockeye, 31 coho, 61 pinks, 19 chums and four springs. Eleven seiners averaged 198 sockeye, 146 coho, 919 pinks, 68 chums and 48 springs.
Area 8 saw three days' fishing. On July 9, 41 gillnetters in Fit-zhugh Sound made deliveries averaging 42 sockeye, nine coho, 69 pinks, two chums and one spring. A total of 38 seiners averaged 104 sockeye, 24 coho, 798 pinks, 10 chums and five springs.
A three-day average in Area 10 saw 250 gillnetters making deliveries averaging 244 sockeye, two coho, three pinks and two springs.
In Area 23 there were four days' fishing. A July 10 average saw 45 gillnetters delivering 44 sockeye, while eight seiners averaged 462 sockeye.
There were three days' fishing in Area 29. On July 10, 322 gillnetters made average deliveries of 18 sockeye and four springs.
In Area 4 fishing with small mesh nets opened Sunday, June 30 for a two-day period. The catch was lower than expected, Skeena River Salmon Management Committee reported in its first bulletin of the season, with only 22,505 sockeye landed.
A total of 409 gillnetters fished in the area Sunday night, but some boats moved up into Area 3 and by Tuesday, July 3, there were only 368 boats left in the area. Most of the gear was centred in Chatham Sound off Smith Island and Hunts Inlet.
Sockeye escapement to the Skeena is considered well above that of former years, the committee reported. Total escapement to July 7 was 235,409. The figure is close to the predicted escapement of 247,000 and compares to the 1958 escapement of 224,725 sockeye by July 7.
The better than average escapement is attributed to a one week delay in the opening of the small mesh net fishery. The delay was to provide more escapement to the Lakelse, Morice, Nanika, Alastair, Bear and Sustut systems, the committee said.
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8/ THE FISHERMAN — JULY 12, 1974