April 13, 1962
THE FISHERMAN
Page 5
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
FINAL PREPARATIONS
—Fisherman foto
Three crewmen on the Westwhale 2,, the former Bouvet 3, are from the left, Helmut Boehringer, Inge Noringseth, and Peter Kirsebom. They are pictured on deck shortly before the whaling fleet left for the west coast Wednesday night.
NORTH PACIFIC COMMISSION
HOISTING CARGO ABOARD
—Fisherman foto That's a refrigerator in mid-air being lifted by crane aboard the Westwhale 2 at BC Marine Engineers prior to the whaling fleet departing for a five month tour of duty in the North Pacific.
Food Workers Union Letter
Soviet Fishermen UFAWU Views on
Share Salmon
The Murmansk regional committee of the Soviet Food Workers Union fully shares the
Uiited Fishermen and Allied Workers' viewpoint on the need for concluding "an agreement
foi the conservation and protection of the salmon resources of the northern portion of the Paific Ocean." *
and "who had both your and our AUetter containing this  assur- reSpects," is now doing other union anccfollowed greetings expressing work in tne Murmansk combined our solidarity with you in favor fish plant New seCretary is Alex-of enervation of fish resources ander Kiryanov, a trawl fisherman.
on \h high seas" cabled by the Murmnsk regional committee's presicTum to the recent UFAWU annua', convention.
The fetter, signed by chairman E. TimCcev and secretary A. Kiry--anov. rdated the "work being done in our ountry for salmon conservation ark acclimatising salmon in new area^."
As an "xamplc it pointed out:
"Murmmsk fishery organisations are brinmig in chum and pink spawn aiu fry from Sakhalin Island by ]Jane. These have been transferred to the waters of the White and '-iarents seas. We have recorded sone very hopeful results.
"In 1961 .Salmon were found in catches ma do off the coasts of Iceland and the Faroe Islands. The Norwegian fishermen aptly call these fish 'Russian salmon'. Many hundreds of these valuable fish have been caujht by our fishermen."
EARNINGS INCREASED
Reminding secretary Homer Stevens and other nembers of the UFAWU delegation that when they visited the Soviet Union in 1960 "we informed you of the change over for the worker in our country to a six and s«ven hour day without reduction in pay," the letter continued:
"We are happy U report that our fishermen registered a 21 percent increase in pay compared with 1959 as a result of the new pay system we have introduced. "Furthermore, new rules have been adopted for free issuance of clothes and boots for fishermen."
The letter also repotted that Peter Fillipov, who as regional committee secretary welcomed the UFAWU   delegates  at Murmansk
At the time the letter was written, the Soviet people were preparing for elections to the Council of Deputies of the USSR on March 18, a national holiday.
"In our pre-election meetings the fishermen and shoreworkers nominated as their candidate for deputy, Dimitry Kalyugin, who has come up all the way from a deckhand to his present position as captain of a trawler," the letter stated.
Final section of the letter referred to the disarmament conference at Geneva and to Prime Minister John Diefenbaker's statement that Canada should exert the maximum effort, to reach international agreement on disarmament.
"WE NEED PEACE"
Commenting on Diefenbaker's declared readiness to participate in a meeting of heads of government if this would further disarmament, the letter said:
"The fundamental solution of this question would make it possible to regulate current international questions.
"Disarmament is the only true path to the moderation of international tensions and the maintenance of peace in the world. It would permit th-3 raising of living standards and significantly reduce the tax burden on the peoples of all countries. "In your letter you noted that you are  disturbed  by testing of
atomic weapons in the USSR. The tests were forced on us by the aggressive behavior of the governments of the Western powers and primarily of the United States. No other way out was left to us.
"You know that the US government is continuing to conduct extensive underground tests of nuclear weapons, is preparing atmospheric tests and has also opened its atomic testing grounds to Britain.
"It appears to us essential, therefore, that the trade union organisations of all countries should unite their efforts against the continuing testing of atomic weapons by the US and Britain.
"Fishermen are engaged in peaceful labor. They are catching fish to satisfy the food needs of the population of their countries.
"We need no war. We need peace. Only by the joint efforts of all peoples, of the workers of all professions and viewpoints will it be possible to achieve our aims for peace . . ."
iiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiii
the salmon, halibut and herring fisheries, and this country's own bottom fisheries, Stevens pointed out, was there any means of protecting the fishing without drafting a new treaty to include all four nations?
When Clark said this question came under government policy, Stevens asked if there was anything in the existing treaties to prevent the movement of Japanese fishing vessels into Hecate Strait for bottom fish or to prevent the entry of the Soviet fishing fleets into the strait.
Clark replied there was no indication at present that these fleets were going to move into Hecate Strait.
Stevens repeated his question, pointing out that the Japanese herring fleet was now fishing in Sheli-kof Strait between Kodiak Island and the Alaska Peninsula and there was every possibility thai when it had taken sufficient fish in that area it could move into Hecate Strait.
Clark said he was quite sure that if such a move actually took place by either Japan or the Soviet Union or both the Canadian government would take prompt action. He did not elaborate what he meant by prompt action.
TAG RECOVERIES
Fishermen got more satisfactory answers to their questions about intermingling of salmon of North American and Asian origin.
Dr. A. W. H. Needier, director, Nanaimo Biological Station, indicated there was some intermingling of sockeye which he considered were mainly from Bristol Bay and Kamchatka between 159° West and ±(i7- Eas! longitude. This would be a distance of 38 degrees or approximately 1,900 miles at the fiftieth parallel. There was also con-s dorable intermingling of chum salmon from 153° West to 180th meridian.
Elaborating this point, Dr. M. P. Shepard, Fisheries Research Board biologist, stated only one chum tag had been returned from west of the line where the Japanese are
,'i.ng. in the case of sockeye, there had been two recoveries of sockeye tagged in the area where the Japanese fleet operates.
Using information gained from studies of scale types, he indicated the following possible catches that might have been made by Japanese fleets out of chums stocks bound for BC waters.
of
4,000 from BC 92,000 from BC 10,000 from BC 21,000 from BC 22,000 from BC 60,000 from BC 3,000 could be from BC Dr. Shepard stated that in the seven years a total of 212,000 chums from JJC waters could have been taken* by the Japanese, although he felt that this was a gross over-estimation. At the same time he admitted scale methods were indefinite and more study of this kind would be necessary to provide full answers.
CHUM DECLINE
Questioned about the decline of chums in BC, he pointed out that the average chum catch from the years 1946 to 1954 inclusive had been 5.2 million. This had dropped to 2.1 million, on the average, in the years since 1954, or a drop of 3.1 million fish a year. This, he added, should provide evidence that the Japanese had not taken enough to cause the decline.
He was asked by Stevens whether the statistics and information gathered in 1956 were as reliable as information received in 1961.
	out of
1955 ...	. 18,600,000
1956 .	12,900,000
1957 i.	9,200,000
1958 i	17,200,000
1959	11,200,000
1960 ...	10,500,000
1961 ...	6,100,000
Stevens pointed out that the 1952 chum run had not been overfished because there was no fishing for chums from September 1 to October 20 and yet there had been a very heavy decline in the return. It also appeared from the statistics given by Dr. Shepard that the 92,000 largest single catch of BC chums by the Japanese could have taken place in the 1956 cycle.
Dr. Shepard maintained that there had been quite extensive scale studies made in 1956 in the area concerned; in fact, more scales had been collected and studied than in any other year.
Dr. Needier in his remarks contended that although two tags taken from two tagged sockeye had shown the possibility of sockeye going west of the provisional line from BC waters, the small proportion would not be of any importance.
He said that they had estimated sockeye travelled 30 miles a day, which meant that they would have to cover 1,800 miles in 60 days in order to reach Rivers Inlet. The time for migration, in his opinion, eliminated any possibility that any large numbers of sockeye were taken by the Japanese.
TAGGING PROGRAM
Stevens asked Dr. Needier why, if that was his view, there was need for greater information about the area fished by the Japanese.
He said the Union had asked for additional tagging and was pleased that four vessels would be tagging for Canada this year instead of only one. At the same time, it was concerned because the government was restricting Canadian tagging to 160° West instead of allowing the vessels to tag to about 170° East.
Dr. Needier answered this question by stating that they were involved in a coordinated program. They had no reason to doubt the validity of the Japanese or US tagging effort. Again, some of the vessels being used by Canada were very small and they did not want them to take too many risks. Other areas farther west would be covered by the other two countries.
Eventually, with a larger research vessel which could remain at sea for longer periods such as the 170-foot vessel being built, more of this work could be done.
Clark pointed out that Canada was only now beginning to use the more recently developed long-lining method of tagging.
Asked what percentage of the Japanese catch consisted of immature sockeye or other salmon, Dr. Needier said that in his opinion the Japanese did not want to catch immature salmon and did in fact catch a large proportion of mature fish. They used a 4.8 inch mesh net.
In reply to another question, he said the Japanese mothership fleet does not use longlines for salmon.
PRESENTATION CHALLENGED
UFAWU president H. Steve Sta-venes said his impression was that the whole report had been presented in such a way as to try to convince the fishermen they should not be too concerned about the Japanese mothership operation on the high seas.
Clark denied this, saying all the Commission was trying to do was present the evidence as gathered by Canadian scientists or reported from studies made by the other nations' scientists.
Stavenes maintained that the reports conveyed the idea there was "nothing for us to worry about." But, he continued, as long as there was any mid-ocean fishery, it constituted a threat. The main consideration should be to
establish ways and means of ending mid-ocean salmon fishing completely.
QUEEN CHARLOTTES' HERRING
Commenting on the possibility that the Japanese might be considering herring fishing in the Queen Charlotte Islands area, Stevens said he got the impression from Clark's opening statement that the government felt this country might have to give way on this.
Clark stated that this is not necessarily the case, but there was some doubt as to whether stocks of herring in the Queen Charlotte islands area continue to qualify for abstention.
Pointing out that there iiad already been a rumor in the industry to the effect that taking quotas off over the entire coast might provide a better case for continued abstention, Stevens said he would like to know exactly what bearing this would have because there were no quotas in the Queen Charlotte Islands area and Canadians had taken up to 90,000 tons there in some years.
Clark replied that this was a matter that would have to be given careful consideration.
UNION STATEMENT
Before the meeting adjourned, Stevens asked for and was given the floor to make a statement.
Canadian fishermen whose livelihood depended upon the returns of salmon, on herring, and on stocks of halibut and other bottom fish, he declared, were deeply concerned about present trends.
"We have seen the decline in our fisheries and we want to know exactly what is happening and be absolutely sure that it is not the effect of Japanese operations. More evidence is obviously necessary on this score.
"We can see the handwriting on the wall, .so to speak, with the Japanese fleet and possibly the Soviet fleet moving farther down our coast," he said. "That is  why we  believe there  is a need for a four nation treaty and a need to put a stop to mid-ocean fishing entirely. "We realise the Commission can't make a flat statement on this at this time, but we hope they will carry this back to Ottawa with them as being the feeling of the fishermen."
Thanking Stevens for his remarks, Clark said policy matters were beyond their authority, "but these things which you have in mind will be sent to the authorities."
US Considers Tuna Control
The Japanese Fisheries Agency has announced details of a bill under consideration by the US Congress to regulate the catch of yellowfin tuna in the East Pacific.
The proposed regulatory area is reported to be east of 120 degrees West longitude north of 5 degrees North latitude, and east of 110 degrees West longitude south of 5 degrees  North latitude.
This, comments the Japanese fishing periodical Suisan Keizai Shimbun, "is somewhat larger than some circles in Japan had anticipated.
The Agency says that lack of complete catch data makes it difficult to give an accurate figure for tuna taken by Japanese vessels in the proposed regulatory area. A rough estimate is that some 5,000 tons are caught by Japanese long-liners, the majority of them vessels in the 250 ton class.
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