Vol. XXXIII, No. 1 Vancouver, B.C
2 January 9, 1970
Commission Urges:
'Double Spawning Channel Spending'
Doubling of government expenditure — from the 1969 level of $200,000 to a 1971 total of $400,000 —for building artificial spawning channels is recommended by the International Pacific Salmon Fisheries Commission. The commission's annual meet-
i ing last month was told that substantial adult returns to all channels in 1969. and a previous good return of sockeye to Pitt River in 1968, gives it a mandate to plan increased channel construction.
t Commission chairman DeWitt Gilbert said that "potential for ?xpansion in this field is tremen--ious.
"An economic base has been ■stablished for the program which s literally fantastic in its capabilities for protecting runs and .increasing the fishermen's catch."
RETURNS HIGH
Last year saw the first adult sockeye returns to the Weaver Creek artificial channel. Gilbert noted. The escapement of 59.000 was substantially higher than any previously recorded. Brood year escapement was 11,000.
In addition, an estimated 110,000 sockeye, worth about $264,000 to fishermen, were caught commercially.
After deducting fishermen's costs and the value of fish produced naturally. Gilbert said, the
UFAWU Meeting Notices Pages 3 and 8
Weaver Creek channel was shown to have made a net profit of 5191,000 in one year.
"Considering that total cost of the channel was only $275,000, one can hardly conceive of a better business than this," he said.
At Pitt River sockeye incubation channel, escapement jumped from a low of 13,800 sockeye in the brood year to 25,000 in 1969. This was the best result since 1956.
An estimated total of 190,000 cockeye was produced in 1969. with a catch of 156,000 — largest Pitt River sockeye run on record, of which the incubation channel orodueed an estimated catch of 100.000 fish.
"Thus we have a gross profit of $240,000 (value to fishermen), less >12,000 annual cost, for a $228,000 net profit in one year of operation," Gilbert said.
"No credit is taken for increasing escapement to spawning erounds or for saving the run from possible extermination because of deteriorating spawning grounds."
NO PRECEDENT
Last year was the second(year of complete returns to the Pitt River incubation channel. In 1968. an estimated net profit of $162,000 was attained from the increase in catch.
Net profit produced in two years by the channel thus amounted to some $390,000. Original capital cost of the project was $84,000.
"To my knowledge," Gilbert said, "there is no precedent in the salmon business for such sub-
See CHANNELS — Page 8
Next Amchitka Tests Six Times Greater
Future nuclear blasts to be conducted on Amchitka Island in the Aleutians by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission will be six times greater than the test which sparked widespread protests last fall, according to the Alaska fish and game department.
The department noted recently that the one megaton test conducted October 2 was a "calibration shot only." Future tests "will be much larger, probably at least six megatons," it said.
AEC officials confirmed last month the October blast was a test to determine suitability of Amchitka for hug e explosions
which it felt could not be detonated in the continental U.S. with any degree of safety.
At a press conference in Anchorage last month AEC officials said the first in a two-part series of new atomic blasts is scheduled to be detonated on Amchitka within two years. Two holes already have been drilled on the island for the blasts which will be the largest ever detonated in the U.S.
Newsmen were barred from attending an earlier press conference in Juneau at which a 10 member AEC team briefed top Alaska legislators on effects of the October 2 blast.
Uruguay Extending Limit to 200 Miles
Uruguay has followed the example of three other Latin American countries, Ecuador, Peru and Chile, in extending its territorial waters, including fishing rights, 200 miles from shore.
Major concern of Ecuador, Peru and Chile, all of which share a Pacific coastline, was the tuna fishery. Uruguay's action, observers feel, has been influenced more by the earlier declaration by Argentina extending its fishing rights over the Patagonian shelf. This is believed to have been a factor in reducing the Soviet hake catch off the Atlantic coast of South America from 512.G00 tons in 1967 to 99,800 tons last year.
Soviet fleets, which have been fishing extensively off
the Uruguayan coast in recent years, are expected to be
severely affected by the move. ,--.--—---
Finning Marine photo
• Clearing with UFAWU headquarters in Vancouver on December 23 prior to sailing for tuna grounds off Mexico and Central America was Emil Jensen's Royal Venture. Brine tank and freezer equipped vessel packs seine net 450 fathoms long and 50 fathoms deep and three 50 h.p. outboard powered speedboats. Skippered by Jensen, 108 foot vessel's UFAWU crew is comprised of Dick Irving, Alf Larsen, Gordon Anderson, Harvey Baltzer, Howard Jensen, Hans Peterson, Anders Antonsen, George Norbury and Gary Anderson.
Probe Planned
Is Fraser Pollution Affecting Salmon?
Is pollution of the Fraser River affecting young salmon stocks? The International Pacific Salmon Fisheries Commission indicates it will attempt to answer this question through an expanded research program this year.
The pollution investigation was suggested in a review of the Fraser River pink salmon fishery made at last month's commission meeting in Bellingham.
The commission said it is "quite concerned with the discrepancy between the predicted run and the actual run" of pinks in 1969.
Noting that "three of the last five pink salmon runs to the Fraser have been very poor," biologist Alan Chapman said: "There is no precedent for such a frequency of poor runs in the long history of the fishery."
This summer. Chapman said, the commission intends expanding studies of the "estuarial life of pink salmon to see if our increasing civilization has contributed in some way toward making the estuary more sensitive to the effect of climatic changes, and thus more hazardous to the survival of young pink salmon."
UFAWU representative H. Steve Stavens urged the commission to pay increasing attention to the pollution threat in the Fraser River and its effects on all salmon stocks.
LOW CHUM RETURNS
It was noted that there has been a continuing below average return of chums coincident with the increasing frequency of poor pink runs.
Neither lack of escapement nor lack of fry production appear to have been in any wav responsible for the three bad pink runs, Chapman told the meeting, and the same holds true for below average chum returns.
i Another report to the meeting reviewed the commission's efforts to combat columnaris disease in the Horsefly River. The disease
is normally associated with high water temperatures.
(A new temperature control project went into operation in time for last year's big escapement and commission scientists found that while arriving fish were infected with columnaris, few, if any, died from this disease.
(The commission described as a "most disheartening experience" the loss of about 50 percent of the entire spawning population, despite successful operation of the control project.
See FRASER — Page 8
Mid-February Date For Suit Arguments
Final arguments will be heard in B.C. Supreme Court on February 16 in the $149,000 damage suit launched against the UFAWU by Prince Rupert trawler owners as a result of the 1967 strike by trawl fishermen to win their first signed agreement.
The oral arguments will be heard in the wake of written submissions being made by both sides
Mather Asks Joint Work With USSR
A plea for "a greatly stepped up program of joint Canadian-Russian research in non-military spheres during this new decade" was made this week by Barry Mather, New Democratic MP for Surrey, in a letter to external affairs minister Mitchell Sharp.
"It seems to me that such cooperation could bring practical benefits in weather and Arctic problems, in fisheries, and at the same time, encourage the spirit of detente between our two great neighbors, north and south," Mather wrote, pointing out that "France and Russia are already advanced in such joint enterprises."
Concluding, Mather said that "Canada occupies a unique position at this time to welcome and assist in constructive peaceful programs and thereby contribute to a better understanding and, hopefully, the end of underground nuclear bomb testing by the U.S. and USSR."
this month. Findings in the case could have far reaching implications for all unions.
The 1967 trawl strike was won in all areas of the coast except Prince Rupert where the Vessel Owners Association allegedly signed a backdoor agreement with the rump 75 member Deep Sea Fishermen's Union a few days after the strike began.
Two UFAWU officers later served one year jail terms and the union was fined an unprecedented $25,000 as a result of injunctions issued in the strike.
During six weeks of hearings in November and December the court heard extensive evidence relating to the UFAWU claim to have represented an overwhelming majority of Prince Rupert trawl fishermen.
Owners' spokesmen testified about their insistence on dealing with the DSFU and claimed the UFAWU had no right "interfering" in the trawl fishery — in which no collective agreement existed. There was no documentation of alleged DSFU membership in the trawl fleet. Testimony was given, however, citing close relationships between the DSFU, vessel owners and fishing company management.
UFAWU fishermen have told the court of pressures exerted to sign up with the DSFU shortly before the 1967 trawl strike began. Involved in these efforts were trawler owners and DSFU business agent Vince Dixon.
Evidence was heard relating to owners' rejection of union plans to unload "hot" fish during the strike. Loss of the fish, which subsequently rotted, forms the basis for part of the damage claim. The balance is for alleged expenses and lost fishing time.