Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Opposition.


Fish trapping has not always been favored by everybody. Traditionally it was necessary. During the turn of the century, commercial fishing in Alaska was an extremely profitable business. There were large numbers of residents against it because of the huge consumption of salmon. And those who were for it believed it was good because it created jobs and enormous incomes.

These traps covered huge parts of rivers and basically collected all the salmon swimming back to their spawning areas. Not only did this suck for the other non-commercial fishermen, but it had a negative impact on the salmon. If the fish couldn't get back to spawn, then how many could return the next year? The efficiency of these traps are unbeatable.

Milotte, Alfred. (1904). Commercial Salmon Trap Operations.

Link: http://vilda.alaska.edu/u?/cdmg11,5850

Above the collection name it says "access this item". This will open up a new tab showing a video of commercial fishermen moving salmon from a fish trap onto a boat. This gives you an idea of the number of salmon that were caught in these traps.

No comments:

Post a Comment