Inland Waterway passes through the harbor, and there were 220 yachts to register at the municipal pier during the past calendar year.

Since 1934 records indicate that eight vessels met with casualties in the vicinity of St. Augustine, five of these resulting in the total loss of the vessels, and one person being drowned while attempting to get ashore. The numerous shoals in the vicinity of St. Augustine, and especially the treacherous condition of the inlet, where frequent and rapid changes in the channels and shoals take place, constitute hazards for boats operating in this general area. During the past 6 months it was reported that each week two or three boats grounded on the bar at the inlet.

While this condition is indicative of the protective need of a Coast Guard station at this point, such a unit would in addition provide the Coast Guard with the means of carrying on more effectively in this region its law-enforcement duties affecting customs, navigation, and motorboat laws. The establishment of such a station would also serve the interests of national defense.

In cooperation with the air force of the Coast Guard it is considered essential to have men and equipment at systematically located points along the coast in order that they may be dispatched to relieve distress, effect rescues, or investigate suspicious circumstances which may be sighted from the air. A station situated at St. Augustine would serve this purpose over a radius of 50 to 100 miles.

In a survey made of the needs of the Coast Guard along the Florida coast about a year ago by a board of commissioned officers, entirely independent of the study just concluded, it was recommended that a Coast Guard station be established in the vicinity of St. Augustine.

The Treasury Department recommends the enactment of the bill as amended, as will be seen from the attached letter of the Acting Secretary, dated May 4, 1937, and your committee is advised that the proposed legislation, as amended, is in accord with the program of the President.

Your committee is therefore of the unanimous opinion that the establishment of a Coast Guard station at or near St. Augustine, Fla., would serve a highly useful purpose and recommends early and favorable consideration of the bill.

The letter of the Acting Secretary of the Treasury, dated May 4, 1937, reads as follows:

Hon. S. O. BLAND,

TREASURY DEPARTMENT,
Washington, May 4, 1937.

Chairman, Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries,

House of Representatives.

DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: Reference is made to your letter of February 26, 1937, enclosing a copy of bill (H. R. 5140, 75th Cong., 1st sess.) to provide for the establishment of a Coast Guard station at St. Augustine, Fla., and requesting to be furnished the views and recommendations of this Department thereon.

This proposal has been the subject of a careful study by the Coast Guard. At the present time the nearest Coast Guard station to the northward of the location of the proposed station is at St. Simon Island, Ga., a distance of approximately 100 miles, and to the south the House of Refuge at Flagler Beach, Fla., a distance of approximately 40 miles. Shipping between Savannah, Ga., and Jacksonville, Fla., and points south passes close by St. Augustine. This port is a center for the shrimp industry, and approximately 200 boats engaged in this activity operate out of the harbor, the value of their cargoes amounting to approximately $532,000 during 1936. All traffic along the inland waterway passes through the harbor, and there were 220 yachts to register at the municipal pier during the past calendar year.

Since 1934 records were presented indicating that eight vessels met with casualties in the vicinity of St. Augustine, five of these resulting in the total loss of the vessels, and one person was drowned while attempting to get ashore. The numerous shoals in the vicinity of St. Augustine, and especially the treacherous condition of the inlet, where frequent and rapid changes in the channels and shoals take place, constitute hazards for boats operating in this general area. During the past 6 months it was reported that each week two or three boats grounded on the bar at the inlet.

While the above is indicative of the protective need of a Coast Guard station at this point, such a unit would provide the Coast Guard with means of carrying on more effectively in this region its law-enforcement duties affecting customs, navigation, and motorboat laws, and serve the interests of national defense.

In cooperation with the air force of the Coast Guard, it is considered essential to have men and equipment at systematically located points along the coast that they may be dispatched to relieve distress, effect rescues, or investigate suspicious circumstances which may be sighted from the air. A station situated at St. Augustine would serve this purpose over a radius of 50 to 100 miles.

In a survey made of the needs of the Coast Guard along the Florida coast about a year ago by a board of commissioned officers, entirely independent of the study just concluded, it was recommended that a Coast Guard station be established in the vicinity of St. Augustine.

For the above reasons, this Department recommends the enactment of the bill H. R. 5140, provided that there be inserted after the fifth word "at" in line 4 of the bill the words "or near" in order to afford a reasonable latitude of judgment by the Commandant of the Coast Guard in deciding upon the most advantageous location for the station if it be authorized.

I am advised that the proposed legislation, amended as recommended, is in accord with the program of the President.

Very truly yours,

STEPHEN B. GIBBONS, Acting Secretary of the Treasury.

O

SALMON FISHERIES

JUNE 2, 1937.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed

Mr. DIMOND, from the Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, submitted the following

REPORT

[To accompany H. R. 5860]

The Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 5860) making further provision for the fisheries of Alaska, having considered the same, report it back to the House without amendment and recommend that the bill do pass.

The purpose of the bill is to provide an opportunity for the native residents of the Bristol Bay region, most of whom are descendants of whole or part blood of the aboriginal Eskimo or Indian races inhabiing the country at the time of its discovery by the Russians, to earn a livelihood in the extensive salmon fisheries of that district. This can be done by limiting to residents of the district the taking of salmon by stake or set nets, as provided in the bill.

Bristol Bay is a large bay indenting the southwestern side of the Territory of Alaska and opening into Bering Sea. It is the site of the greatest red salmon fishery in the world and produces annually approximately 1,200,000 cases of that species of salmon, containing 48 pounds to the case.

Two methods of fishing are employed to catch the Bristol Bay salmon. One involves the use of drift nets operated by boats and not attached to the shore; and the other involves the use of stake or set nets, one end of each of which is tied to the shore, and which extends out at right angles to the shore into the shallow tidal waters of the bay, but not beyond the low-water mark therein. Under present regulations no stake net may exceed 50 fathoms in length and the distance by most direct measurement from any part of one stake net or set net to any part of another stake net or set net shall be not less than 450 feet. During the year 1936 approximately 410 stake nets were operated in the Bristol Bay district and took about 3%1⁄2 percent of the total salmon catch of the district, the remaining 96%1⁄2 percent having been taken by drift nets. The operation of stake or

set nets is a simple one and can readily be performed by elderly people or even by women who are unable to undertake the more laborious and hazardous method of fishing with drift nets, and therefore the operation of stake or set nets is well adapted for use by the native inhabitants of the region. In fact, for most of them it is the only way they have of making a living.

More than 1,000 fishermen from the United States come to Bristol Bay each year to engage in salmon fishing and return to the States at the end of the short fishing season. For some years past the fishermen from the States, being more aggressive than the natives, have tended more and more to exclude the natives from stake or set-net fishing. While the income derived from the operation of any stake net is very small, the fishermen from the States frequently locate stake nets and hire some one to operate the same while they, themselves, engage in the more lucrative drift netting operation. For example the operator of the average stake net will not earn more than $250 in a season, while the average fisherman operating a drift net will probably earn five times that amount.

The proposed legislation is highly desirable for the welfare and indeed for the subsistence of the native residents of the Bristol Bay district for without an opportunity to engage in fishing by stake or set nets they have no method whatever of earning sufficient money to buy necessary food and clothing. The number of salmon taken by this method of fishing is, as above shown, comparatively negligible and yet the natives can live from the income thus secured, where otherwise they would be in actual want.

The bill is in harmony with the purpose and policy of the Government in promoting and aiding in the education, medical relief, and economic well-being of the natives of Alaska who are generally considering to occupy the same status with respect to the Government as the Indians of the United States.

Your committee is advised by the Assistant Secretary of Commerce that the Bureau of the Budget has advised the Department that there would be no objection to the presentation of the following report to your committee and appended hereto is his letter, dated May 10, in which is embraced memorandum of the Commissioner of Fisheries favoring the enactment of the legislation. The letter follows:

Hon. S. O. BLAND,

Department of COMMERCE,
Washington, May 10, 1937.

Chairman, Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, House of Representatives, Washington, D. C. MY DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: In your letter of March 24, 1937, you requested the views and recommendations of the Department concerning H. R. 5860, a bill making further provision for the fisheries of Alaska.

Enclosed is a memorandum, in triplicate, from the Commissioner of Fisheries, this Department, in which I concur. This memorandum has been submitted to the Bureau of the Budget, and that Bureau has advised the Department that there would be no objection to its presentation to your committee.

Cordially yours,

The SECRETARY OF COMMERCE:

ERNEST G. Draper, Assistant Secretary of Commerce.

APRIL 12, 1937.

Reference is made to your request of April 1 for a report on the bill (H. R. 5860) introduced by Delegate Dimond on March 23, 1937, making further provision for the fisheries of Alaska.