Item AAAB2235 - Bob Smith interview

SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Bob Smith RECORDED: [location unknown], 1976-01-22 SUMMARY: Bob Smith was born on Lulu Island at Steveston Hwy. Near the golf course in 1906. His father was a fisherman and also worked for Imperial Cannery in the net loft. He started fishing in the Rivers Inlet in 1926 with Wallace Fisheries, as wharfman, then to the Balmoral Cannery on the Skeena River in 1933. Lots of fish in those days. Worked in canneries all over Queen Charlottes, up the Skeena, Canadian Fish and B.C. Packers. Converted a sailboat on the Skeena into a gillnetter with a Chev engine. Took 16 days to come from the Skeena to the Fraser River. Fished with it for 4 or 5 years. Describes the conversion of the sailboat into a gillnetter. Returned to cannery work. Built another boat at Nelson ship yards, a bigger one (31 feet) at the time of the return of the Japanese. Nets these days are more efficient (tape become inaudible). Catches have become smaller, problem of conservation, not enough fish to catch. 12 mile limit is not enough. Long hours fishing in the old days, pulling the net by hand until drums were used. He stays mostly in the river now. Was a union member from the start. Talks of early union organizing difficulties. Talks of Japanese internment, too bad they had to; lose their nets, gradually they returned to the coast. There was not much discrimination between Indians and Japanese and whites. Housing conditions described. Housed were improved in 1926-1927 for Japanese, Indians, and whites. Safety measures improved with union. Bookkeepers were the first-aid men. American Can replaced canning by hand. There's more independence from the canneries now. Fraser River has changed a lot. Pollution affects the fingerlings, especially dog-salmon. Fishing regulations are a help but the fisheries department needs more money for its programs. Salmon enhancement programs have been worthwhile. Buy-back program has not been successful, too many seiners now. Future of fishing is ok if there is more money put into it and the 200 mile limit is enforced.