Founding Shoreworker Member Dies
UFAWU Mourns Kay Nygren
Members of the United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union, and particularly those in the shoreworkers' section of the industry among whom she had worked for a quarter century, are mourning the death of Catherine Anne (Kay) Nygren, one of the Union's founding members and for many years a member of its general executive board. She died in Vancouver General Hospital on November 25 after suffering a stroke.
In the course of her long service to the Union, Mrs. Nygren had been elected over the years to many offices, as shop steward, chief shop steward, local and general executive board member, and participated in a number of Union lobbies and delegations. Most recently she was a member of the Vancouver Shoreworkers Local executive, a post she held at the time of her death.
Born at Stirling, Scotland, 60 years ago, Kay Nygren came to this country with her parents at the age of nine. They made their home in Vancouver and the city had been home to her ever since.
She began working in the fishing industry at Queen Charlotte Fisheries about 25 years ago. At that time organization among shoreworkers was only beginning to take shape and she was one of those who worked most actively to establish the Union.
In more recent years, always maintaining a close relationship with the Union she helped to build, Mrs. Nygren worked at Nelson Bros.' Paramount cannery
V
KAY NYGREN . . . death ends quarter century of dedicated service
and, this year, at Canadian Fishing Company's Home plant.
In a funeral tribute to Mrs. Nygren last week, UFAWU business agent Jack Nichol referred to the role she had played in forming the Union. He added: "Not content with merely establishing the Union, she worked diligently and conscientiously throughout her life to maintain it and make it function effective-
ly for the benefit of the membership."
Nichol said the longtime respected UFAWU member possessed "a quality found too rarely in today's materialistic society — the willingness to serve one's fellow man." He went on:
"Kay always saw her role clearly, and cheerfully accepted sometimes onerous responsibilities without reward, other than the satisfaction of having done her share.
"It is not the great men of the world that bring about changes that make our society a better place to live . . . The world progresses each day and slowly becomes a better place to live, work, play and raise our families through the efforts of an army of unheralded people such as Kay Nygren.
"She will not be forgotten. She will be remembered, and her presence will long be felt by those who toil in the fishing industry.
"We can work and live in an atmosphere of relative security as a result of Kay's contribution, and the contributions of a host of people like her who gave willingly and worried little about what was in it for them."
Surviving members of Mrs. Ny-gren's family include two daughters, Mrs. Kathleen Chapman of Vancouver and Mrs. Mary Litke of Coquitlam; seven grandchildren; two sisters, Mrs. Mary Ed-mundson of Vancouver and Mrs. Bridget Guilmet of Seattle.
Cuba Protests Venezuelan Attack On Tuna Boat 100 Miles Offshore
The Cuban government lodged a strong protest on November 20 over an attack by two heavily armed Venezuelan warships on the Cuban tuna vessel Alecrin. The attack took place on November 14 while the Cuban vessel
was over 100 miles offshore from the coast of Venezuela.
Cuban foreign minister Raul Roa made the protest in Havana to the Swiss ambassador who represents Venezuelan interests in Cuba. Roa charged the Alecrin
Freshwater Fish Market Board Planned by Ottawa
The federal government said in Ottawa this week it plans to set up a Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation to regulate inter-provincial and export trade in freshwater fish and assist the in-1 a n d industry in modernizing plant facilities.
The Crown corporation would seek to raise the incomes of about 7,000 inland fishermen involved by promoting price stability and rational marketing procedures, minister without portfolio Otto Lang said.
Antiquated methods and a subsistence living for fishermen, many of them Native Indians and Metis, are features of the inland fishing industry, Lang said. Freshwater fish exports to the U.S. and other countries are worth some $13 million annually, he noted.
Plans to set up the proposed corporation were worked out with provincial governments along the lines of recommendations made by a 1965 commission of inquiry into the inland fishing industry.
was attacked without warning and that repeated rounds of gunfire damaged her hull at the water-line and destroyed or damaged much of her deck equipment and machinery.
The Alecrin was then boarded by Venezuelan sailors and ordered to proceed toward the Venezuelan coast. Roa said, and her skipper, Capt. Humberto Garcia, and one crew member were taken aboard one of the attacking warships as hostages. The tuna vessel had a crew of more than 30 and carried a Japanese fishing instructor, Yusuko Iwa-moto, one of several Japanese fishing experts now attached to the Cuban fishing fleet to teach tuna techniques.
Roa said the attack was a "typical act of international piracy, similar to those perpetrated against our country by the imperialist government of the United States." He demanded immediate release of the vessel and her crew and payment of indemnity for damages.
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Threat to Fraser Seen by Scientist
Despite a persistent belief among many people that British Columbia as a whole is "still some kind of virgin wilderness, relatively unsullied by man. tremendous pollution problems already exist in this province and they're mounting, particularly in the lower Fraser River," a leading university biologist told The Fisherman this week.
Dr. Milton McClaren of Simon Fraser University said the most pressing need in the fight against environmental pollution is public education backed up by full scale research.
The current lack of scientific data. Dr. McClaren said, is one of the major problems encountered in any effort to curb pollution. Research, he said, should be conducted by independent biologists, from universities or other sources, rather than by government agencies such as the federal fisheries department.
A recent press report quoting him as saying the salmon industry could be wiped out in five years as a result of pollution might be misleading, Dr. McClaren said. BALANCE UPSET
"What I did say, in answer to a question at a meeting of Richmond Anti-Pollution Association, was that a large segment of the population at present is so poorly informed or so apathetic about this threat to the environment that many people will shrug off warnings that the salmon industry, for example, might be extinct within five, 10 or 20 years unless corrective measures are taken.
"But it's impossible to talk in specific terms as to when that stage will be reached. There just isn't enough data available. The research hasn't been done, isn't being done.
"It's safe to say the lower Fraser is one of the places most seriously threatened right now, however, and that pollution is having grave altering effects on the environment of the area," he said. "Sewage dumping, for example, undoubtedly poses a major threat
to fish stocks and bottom marine life."
Destruction of one species of marine life has serious detrimental effects on the balance of nature in the sea, he pointed out, and puts a chain reaction into motion. "It's like a house of cards," he said. "If you remove one card, the whole structure collapses."
Dr. McClaren dismissed suggestions that a computerized system might be feasible for monitoring river pollution. "The point is," he said, "that we don't have enough information on what is going on to feed any meaningful data into such a system in the first place."
ACTION  NEEDED NOW
Film showings and courses on pollution for high school students promise to bring good results, he said, and, hopefully, will help produce a generation better informed and more concerned about its environment.
Can we wait that long? Dr. McClaren agreed there is an immediate problem and that tougher, stringently enforced legislation is needed now to meet the existing crisis.
He was critical of industry and public agencies for their unwillingness to face up to the pollution threat, particularly in the field of making funds available for research and for construction of adequate treatment facilities.
Salmon Fishing Ends for Season
The federal fisheries department on November 28 announced closure of Area 18 and District 1, including Fraser River, to all salmon fishing for the season.
A two day opening in District 1 last week saw a fleet of some 720 gillnetters deliver approximately 60,000 chum salmon, the department reported. Total District 1 catch in this year's chum amounted to some 200,000 fish, the best since 1959.
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THE FISHERMAN — DECEMBER 6, 1968