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4.5.8.wavOne issue closely related to the salmon politics surrounding statehood was fish traps. No issue got people in Alaska more excited. Even at the first territorial legislature in 1913, a law was debated asking Congress to ban the traps. For decades, the fish trap had been a hated symbol of everything that was wrong in the territory. It was described in one campaign as "Alaska's Enemy No. 1."
Despite strong public opposition to the traps, the canned salmon industry and federal officials defended their use on the grounds that they were a labor-saving device and an efficient way to catch fish. The canned salmon industry generated up to three-quarters of territorial revenue in the years before World War II.
The typical fish trap was a series of large logs floating on the surface of the water along with a series of nets that salmon would swim through and be unable to escape from. The fish were stuck in place until the net was raised to collect them. The traps were cheap to operate and maintain, and they caught fish by the thousands.
Alaskans viewed the fish trap not as a valuable labor-saving device but as a contraption that unfairly eliminated fishing jobs by catching fish that fishermen would otherwise catch in boats. Fish traps were also blamed for damaging the fisheries. The traps worked round the clock and could wipe out the salmon in an area.
A small number of large companies owned most of the traps, which became a symbol of Outside control of Alaska. One accounting in 1944 found that 396 of the 434 fish traps were in the hands of Outside firms. Alaskans protested that fish traps sent a fortune to the Outside owners of the canned salmon industry instead of to Alaskans who wanted to earn a living as fishermen.
In 1956, when Alaskans approved the proposed state constitution, they also adopted a law that banned fish traps by a margin of five to one. In fact, more Alaskans voted to ban fish traps than for statehood.
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