God-Given Instinct

A good 60% of the world's salmon, including 90% of the U. S. supply, comes from Alaskan waters, where also abound halibut, crabs, and diverse marine edibles. U. S. fishermen consider that by God and treaty they hold sole rights to the Bristol Bay area of the Bering Sea, where more than $40,000,000 worth of salmon is netted each year. Within the past eight years, Japanese vessels, equipped to zip a fish from the sea and can it aboard have appeared off Alaska in increasing numbers.

Last February, Alaskan Delegate Anthony J. Dimond* informed the House Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee: "I am gravely apprehensive . . . that there will be armed conflict in the Bering Sea." Concerned not so much for its nationals as for U. S.-Japanese relations, Tokyo's Foreign Office promised that Japanese vessels would leave salmon alone, would net crabs only beyond the three-mile limit.

Last week it became apparent that Mr. Dimond was not unduly alarmed. From the captain of the Bering Sea schooner Sophie Christenson came a radio to home offices at Seattle: "Bering Sea covered with Japanese fishing boats and nets. . . . No cutters around. We have God-given instinct to shoot straight. Please ship dozen high-powered rifles, plenty of ammunition."

As the Sophie Christenson's operators prepared to comply, and to duplicate the order for their schooner Charles R. Wilson, U. S. Coast Guardsmen said four cutters were watching Japanese and U. S. fishermen, apparently did not find Japanese encroaching. Snapped a Coast Guardsman, also cherishing God-given instinct: "If there's any shooting to be done, we'll do it."

*Each U. S. Territory has a Delegate to Congress (or Resident Commissioner in Washington), who sits in the House of Representatives, has the right to speak, not vote, and acts in practice as a sort of official lobbyist.

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