Show SALMON A FISH OF GREAT VALUE supports a vast industry on pacific coast prepared by national geographic society wash agton D C S arvice OME two tino thousand chinook sal S SOME mon from the pacific coast wh ch were vere hatched in the aguar lum of washington s new de apartment part ment of commerce building will be placed in deep creek lake mar alar land whose waters drain into the upper potomac it Is hoped the fish will find their ay to salt water and re turn in four years to spawn thus stocking the historic river pacific salmon are the most able fishes not only of the unite I 1 states but also of the entire western hemisphere and with the single ex caption of the sea herrings they are commercially the leading fishes of the world in one year the aggregate catch of salmon in the pacific states british columbia and alaska was upward of four hundred million pounds which as sold in a canned salted sm ked frozen and fresh condition had a mar ket value of about the canned product alone consisting of more than five million cases of 48 one pound cans was worth 2 thirty five thousand people were en in the d efferent bran lies of the industry and the invested capital was fully 30 there are five distinct species of salmons which having many charac te in common nevertheless dif ter strikingly in sia color habits dis food value and economic importance the largest and most magnificent of all salmons Is the chi nook king ling spring or tyee salmon it has an average weight of nearly 25 pounds in the columbia riv er and Is often caught helgi ing 40 to 60 pounds while occasionally exam pies of over pounds are taken while found from california to china it attains its greatest abundance in the bau baL amento Co lambla yukon and other large streams blueback has its faults the species called blueback salmon on the columbia sockeye on puget sound and or red salmon in alaska averages only five pounds in weight and never exceeds twelve it V 41 41 1 10 81 A 10 A ch nook salmon attains greatest abundance in n the co lumbia the eraser fraser and in various streams throughout alasi a its meat Is rich in t 4 deep re I 1 in color and the fish Is therefore in T great reat de mand for canning wh ie le a beautiful fish wl en in salt water w th bright blue back and sides after en bering fresh water it leterio deteriorates lete rates rap idly in food val ie in I 1 appearance the head turns to olive green and the en tire bad and s des becom crimson and finally daik blood red the or coho salmon with a general dietr aution in tl ti e coastal streams avel avei averages ages s x pounds in we and r biely exceeds 2 20 or 30 the smallest species Is the hump back so called from the well marked hun bun p developed by the male in fall the extremes of weight for ma ture examples are three and eleven with four pounds as the aver age the region of greatest aban dance is puget sound to southeast alaska the remaining spec es the file dog or chum salmon averages e gl t pounds in 1 weight it is genei illy and aban abundant lant but owing to the poor quality of the flesh is the least imbor tant of the croul the d st of the jaws in the mile raile ra ile dur ng tl e breed ing season na atile ile ch e of all species is particularly marked in the dog salmon the d florences in spawning times and places of the different species of salmon are most interesting after atter spending most of their lives at sea growing accumulating fat and stor ing energy the salmons move inshore and ascend the streams after once beginning their upward jounney they take no food and in fact are incata ble of d gest ng and a assim asim sim lating food where they spawn the maln calnon on begins to run in spring and pushes its way to the headwaters heid waters of the larger streams in the columbia basin the species d s tributes itself over 90 square miles of washington oregon idaho and montana its upward limit being ansur mountable obstructions or falls in the snake river and yukon river the spawning grounds lie 2000 miles bv by water from the sea the spawning streams of the bed red salmon are those that rise in lakes and the spawning grounds are in the effluents of those lakes the run begins in may and fish continue to come in until october depending on lati tude the silver salmon enters the streams from july to october or no vember but does not as a rule ascend tor for long distances the humpback runs into fresh wa ter in summer and tall fall preferably in sl ort coast toast streams and of en spawns within a few rods of the ocean the schools of dog salmon come in to the stream rather late in the co lumbia river and I 1 aget sound the run extends from august to late in no vember and in alaska the height of the season Is about the first of september now whether the salmon travel in the streams 2 miles or feet to reach their spawning grounds and re gard less of their physical condition at a the time they arrive at the particular places required for the proper devel of eggs and young every indi vidual of ev every ery species dies after spawning awning bp this Is the most characteristic and remarkable event in the life of the pacific salmons NN hy this Is the case Is one of na tures mysteries it has its parallel in some other fishes in the mayfly may fly which perishes after a few hours ex istance and in the annual p ants one can only say of such that they have served their purpose and are no long er needed periods of abundance intile alle the pacific salmons run with more or less regularity year after year two of the species exhibit in particular streams or regions a marked periodicity in abundia which Is so well established that it can be predicted with certainty years in ad vance the BIu blueback eback or sockeye in tain fain streams shows a climax in aban dance every fourth year this Is es pec lally marked in puget sound and fraser river where the years 1905 and 1909 for example were characterized by immense runs while in 1900 and 1910 the abundance as shown by the catch was only one fourth or one fifth as great propagation the artificial propagation of sal mon in the streams of the pacific sea board began at a compa comparatively early date and has continued with j early in creasing extent and importance so that at the present time more hatch cries are devoted to the sal mons than to any other fishes of the western hemisphere the vast inter ests at stake have appeared to war rant and to require all the money that could properly be expended by the federal and state governments for sal mon culture the first salmon hatche hatchery ry in the west was established in on the mccloud Alc Cloud river in california by ex order there was set aside a large tract for a pre serve which was fittingly named baird after the first national corn com missioner of fisheries and living stone stone a pioneer fish was placed in and continued in that capacity for many years over coming coining many obstacles undergoing many privations repeatedly subjected to great danger from attacks of in deans and outlaws while devising methods which showed the bill ties of salmon culture and led to the present extraordinary development of this art the original baird hatchery still in actie e operation Is now I 1 by numerous other government sta eions which may be regarded as lineal descendants the eggs of the salmons are 2 to 25 inch I 1 in diameter and are the larg est handled by the fish they are easily obtained by intercepting the fish on their way to the spawning nin grounds by means of raci s traps seines etc and then when exactly ripe by expressing by firm pressure on the abdomen not easy to handle the size and activity of the salmons make inake it necessary necess iry for two or three men to work together in holding the fish and relieving them of their eggs and milt and the largest individuals are most readily managed by putting them in a strait jacket in view of the inevitable death of the salmon after spawning an im pr pro ement over the old method of forcible expulsion of eggs Is the stun ning of the fish by a blow on the head and taking of the eggs by abdominal section this while greatly facilitate ing the work of the spawn takers adds approximately 10 per cent to the ther egg yield by the saving of eggs that would ordinarily be left in the abdominal cavity salmon eggs hatch slowly incura tion beginning in late summer or early autumn continues until the fol lowing spring or summer depending on the temperature of the water th the most protracted piotr acted period of incubation thus far coming to the notice of fist culturists Is that of the red salmon at carluk alaska where eggs talen tal en in september may not hatch until the following may or june and in certain seasons the hitching hatching time has been prolonged to days the annual deposits of youn sal mon in the waters of the pacific sea board by the bureau of fisheries the three coast states the province of brit ish columbia and the private hatch cries in alaska now total many mil lions of which the largest quantity represents the work ork of the federal government |