f +56" han | a | | | | | Alaska Salmon And Their Practical Propagation By A. J. Sprague Supt. Territorial Hatcheries ‘ 7) f . q of Alaskaw.,) TAK Urrvfahias on MARCH, 1921 ALASKA DAILY EMPIRE PRINT NAZI. <= ts : F CONGRE LIBRAR a oes : JUN 30 1925 ‘ bikes ; ote ~ e530 een Teo ome § 4 a adltee 4 Me Page One THE ALASKA SALMON And Their PRACTICAL PROPAGATION By A. J. SPRAGUE Superintenednt Territorial Hatcheries of Alaska. : MARCH, 1921. I am writing. this little book, dear reader, for the benefit of ‘the Alaska fishermen, for we are all interested, from the big cannery- men to the little gunny ‘sack fishermen of the spawning streams. I want a little heart to heart talk with all the thousands of Alaska fishermen. ; We all live in Alaska and desire to con- tinue our residence here. The fish business is the largest industry in Alaska, and we, as fishermen, must see that it is taken care of and that the industry is not destroyed ‘through greed or lack of intelligent pres- ervation and propagation. This is no one man’s job. Everyone must do his part, and that means all of us. We all know there is something wrong when we have spasmodic runs of salmon in different districts of our inland waters. On off years we always pat ourselves on the back and say, “Oh yes, next year is the big cycle year.’ And when the fish do not come, we explain it away in one breath by mak- ing a goat of the bear, seagulls, fish ducks, all species of trout and other fish eating ‘all the salmon eggs or to storms or lower water stream conditions. It would be good policy for us to be honest with. ourselves. We all know that for centuries nature has SEnSAARED ER taESENGTONOADLANAONTADEOIS Say TURTRORISTER provided for all of this loss, and she has fixed, immutable and iron laws. For, to start =| with, she has never given the power to anyone species to destroy without placing a limit to that destruction. (Frankly I don’t believe that there are any more seagulls today than there were twenty years ago.) When any living creatures become too plentiful, nature has her own way to destroy and an- nihilate them. Just leave it to her. She will establish that balance or equilibrium neces- sary. Her iron laws hold, trom the minutest form of life to man, himself. Now, just a word about the trout’s de vouring all the salmon eggs. Possibly it has | INLAND PASSAGE SCENE CANNERY AT BIG PORT WALTER. BARANOFF ISLAND never occurred to one person in a hundred that the young salmon, during his stay in fresh | water, before going to his future home in the seas, eat the eggs and young of the trout during their spawning season, For nature intended this to be so, in order that the trout may not get too plen- tiful. On the ether hand she has given to one female salmon three thousand eggs. Why? So that a few may reach maturity, ‘and the balance feed her other creatures. Comes now, Mr. Selfishman, and upsets THT 7 0 Du I be se Dissrennvaieanin je \ {cl : E E MMO SE | | ! iB] 5 = 3] 8 5 lg He ie | 18 feennvvectaatvacsvtcnsvarsansvascvarsstbarnueita ven constaniniibitintiennneap rattan a nammzzazneia Taare TR TerSeeTETTTTTITTG a): (nm To Page Three and destroys, all of this balance. He would E teke all, and put nothing back. Now make | no mistake in this matter, for nature doe not intend to stand for any of that kind of - stuff. We are only fooling ourselves. It is - like the farmer that takes the crops off his) land and in turn has to fertilize it, and put — Hie CrapHpetenntLiG) Tounsaecntavagiuvonssouruercnuiane ap svennantespentontenionn(ueeuersenaneonbn TOO TO juegutreanestene TE | the price and it came high. Let me tell you | = that experience is the best and only certain | ae I built and operated the Trask and | duanaetens I: k ) q_ ) epee ere CEO EBA iausnsttnG)) ye DSeneesnsersecSeese¥dttsnestsnsssssSvennlssts iv ‘ing, system for the salmon which of late we ~ -| have heard and read so much? Take it from 4 | Snow have the same kind, st dear old Bonne- | | in another one. And Mr. Fisherman, that. is just what we have got to do with the sea.) We have got to put something back, and at. least allow a certain per cent. of a yearly — run of salmon up to their spawning grounds to seed the beds for the future generation. | If we don’t we may just as well grab our > blankets and say, “To the Pioner’s Heme at 3} Sitka for us,” or, “Where do we go from - here.” We can’t get in on the Siberian | fisheries, for the Japs and Reds have beat | us to it. They got there first, and anyhow, — just at the present time, we don’t know I who to make arrangements with yet. | Now let’s call a spade a spade in this || fish business. All of you fellows know how \3 to get the fish, by all the clever devices set | by the ingenuity of man, from the moderr — floating trap to the gunny sack fisherman of © the streams, and why not, all of us help a | little bit on the propagation end of this busi- | ness? Honest now, don’t get sore, and lose = two weeks’ sleep because a few salmon got BI by your pets and racks during the night of | high water, and escaped up stream to seed | their spawning beds for the future preserva- = tion of the species. Let’s take a look into || the propagation end of this most important | fish question. :| ARTIFICIAL RETAINING POND FOR | YOUNG SALMON A_ FAILURE. FI Now what about the Pond retaining, rear- /me, you can’t do it and get resuits. I paid = gursaduevusneaenen _Klamath Falls Hatcheries for the State of | ' Oregon in 1909 and 1913, and as Superin- cetera launched the Pond rearing system arch 1lith cf that year. (See Tillamook 7 ee Now listen, I built some dandy little ponds good enough to swim in. They sesueseusuatiuecenee ztpenccnnsuepeentusnenuevensnsesenenel — Tosensenannasnsnenaunnesetenl a m BI | Page Four | Besides having domesticated them, you have “robbed them of the vital instinct of self as —S y Alaska. They are kept in these small grave)= like ponds for a period of two years, and = then distributed at the cost of about one/= dollar per fish; four’ inches long. If they to those same ponds when matured for spawning? “Now I don’t believe this, neither does: the poor fish. : In retaining ponds for young salraon it young salmon in and trout and other enemies|= out Now when the instinct of the salmon/é asserts itself, he wants and must have his freedom to go to his future home, the sea. And if you compel him to remain in this pond he .becomes stunted in growth, and development and, of course, dies. Take for example, one hundred thousand salmon to be held in a pond for a_ period of two years in order to protect them until they were good sized fish before being lib- erated. The following results will take; Rlace: (1) Because of the lack of natural microscopic food, found in all tundra water, and that cannot be artificially reproduced, all artificial pond fish go bad sooner or later, usually about the third month. (2) All sal- mon pass from fresh to salt water by an instinct of nature. They never have con- sulted any human being as to that time, for they have their own fixed schedule, rain or shine, high or low water. (3) And if they cannot go at their own specified time of the year, they either die, because you have growth for all time to come; and, worse still, by continuous confinment and unnatural food, freedom, and environment, you have in- terfered also with the reproductive organs, and liberated barren fish. The result is thousands of immatured salmon all along the Pacific and inland waters, wanderers in |5 their native element, with no instinct for return to the parent stream to fulfill their mission in life, then spawn and die. (4) Page Five = preservation. (5) With one hundred _ thou- = sand young salmon liberated in any pond the = loss before the end of the second year : a be eighty per cent, caused by fungas — - and parasitic gill disease, and cannibalism, - the feeding off of their other weaker brothers : by the thousands. Meanwhile, ducks and other water fowl will collect their toll. We must E not overlook the fact that it is impossible ft furnish their miscrosopic, insect food —found in the tundra swamps and waters that — “are natural breeding places of the Humpy, i Coho, and Chum Salmon. The ‘best artificiai Fi rood that we can obtain is raw liver, almost = | prohibitive in cost, limited in quantity, and le at best a poor substitute. At the present eight and a half cents each to hold and feed = what salmon are left out of this hundred = thousand lot, for a period of two years, in- = cluding, of course, the cost of maintaining, _ building and general upkeep of these ponds. Hi We can certainly pity these fish, when - turned loose into the watery elements in is which there is no mercy, having been hand pted, petted and domesticated, knowing no gifear. They eat out of your hand and fol- [fice you around the pond, when the dinner = bell rings. Now, the question that we may E|W ell ask ourselves is, ‘What becomes of this | wreck we heave turned loose?” They are less 3 than four inches in length, derelicts with everything their enemies, from the _ two- ‘legged man on down the line. They never = come back to spawn, they will never come | ack into this pond, where they were reared. : And it can make no difference in what man- sner you mark, tag or mutilate their fins, vid Tir Tmo >we can expect no _ reurn. All marks are — dangerous for young fish. = aggrecan ttle EXPERIMENTS ToT. The following experiment was carried out ein September 1917. Two hundred thousand Hife ertilized Red Salmon eggs and 80,000 Humpy ie eggs were planted in the sand and gravei Ba depth of 12 to 14 inches in a tributary El spring stream leading from a small pond “on the South side of Chilkoot Lake. It con- eitained no fish whatever, being obstructed a =Short distance above its outlet into the “lake. I found in this body of water no Hllowest market price, it will cost a dollar and | inengen TOON $A OT TOL DUO OI pesbuntdnnneedadinnndlgatbaan iupvanseespeasnnseaesnevesstcasnceeontecaossusncaanat Page Six familiar fungas spores so much in evidence in natural salmon spawning streams. that BI contain thousands of spawning salmon, and it was barren of fish life. Upon closer obser- vation it was found to be a natural pond or = stream, with the water distributed from heavy seepage. Fearing the lack of proper fcod for the young fish after hatching, owing 4 to the lateness of the season, when bugs, E flies, gnats and various crustaceous food is 4 not available, I buried in the sand also a= short distance from the eggs, to prevent any |=) TOO iutuatesuduetiveceut aUvastuoasaageutvacnaer inisetenouediteeacareurgenritsisereriieledtucesttil Ir avai WATERFALLS fungas growth spreading to the buried eggs, Zs the bodies of the parent fish, for their future | food supply. (The bodies of the sockeye fish | stripped of their eggs.) : A large percentage of these eggs hatched, but if they had been held to the eyed stage, or say within 4 or 5 days of hatching, the |= result would have been at least ninety per =) cent, because later experiments proved this. We must bear in mind that salmon eggs 8 brought to this stage of development have | not had time to breed the vegetable mold, commonly called fungas. This fungas causes |5) Page Seven loss under artificial propagation but not among the alevins or fry in natural condi- tions. Also, it must be understood, salmon eggs, buried deep in the sand, are not at- tracted by fungas growth, but when you consider the length of time that the eggs must be buried in the sand, 45 to 90 days under natural spawning, it is reasonable to — understand that thousands are destroyed by fungas. But if the eggs are within three or four days of hatching they are safe from _fungas or suffocation, piling, or bunching. I carried on these experiments largely at my own expense for two years, and was now broke. This Chilkoot experiment was car- ried out with the assistance of Mr. F. O. - Burckhardt, of the Alaska Pacific Fisheries, f who paid for and furnished his cannery ten- - der, the “Chilkoot,’ with men, nets, native - guides, etc. I had asked for assistance from all the cannerymen of Alaska on June 1, ~ 1918, but few responded Now what has been the results of this experiment? Mr. M. J. O’Connor, Mr. Henry ‘Roden, Mr. Martin Madsen and natives near Haines reported, that on the 20th of August, 1920, thousands of Humpys were seen in the Bay and Chilkoot Lake. I do not mean to say this is positive proof, but Humpys were | seen and this is not a WHumpy district. =I am getting more information on this point. -It means much to us here in Alaska. First, it explodes the theory that the Humpys _ re- turn in two years and back into the parent ; stream where they hatched This was the three-year cycle, and it must certainly apply to this particular district at least—(Note) -To my mind, it speaks the whole history of the sea on the question of the return of salmon into the parent stream. Why |; should salmon pass by hundreds of clear water ideal spawning streams, to enter that one particular stream with apparently no advantage over any other stream? It must _ establish the homing instinct. The time is now ripe for me to say that -I have studied salmon propagation and IE spawning conditions in Alaska streams, and -what has been accomplished alcng practical -lines in the experiment of stocking, for the _ first time, barren lakes—devoid of fish life E because of impassible falls of water at the Fesepeeeeeres Riis bbeaeaer ogee ecescasascoeuurasredds Page Bight . ay: | outlet, 50 to 60 feet high. Such bodies of | weter are alive, however, with natural fish ~ food, where it has accumulated for years in : vast storage basins making excellent feeding © grounds for young salmon. Thus it is made 5 ideal for the propagation of a continuous — food supply for the young salmon that are placed therein; and, as soon as one speci¢ of salmon eggs are hatched, and in course ot their alloted time pass to sea, the lake con- tinues to be a self producing food reservoir y for the next plant of hatching salmon eges. Compare for a moment this condition and — that of other barren lakes with the two- by four gravelike and unnatural retaining z| ponds at the various hatcheries, with their 3 unnatural environments, lack of shade, rock, | snags, and shelter, with costly construction and draining system and expensive main- — tenance. WARM SPRINGS LAKE ON - BARANOF - ISLAND,. ALASKA, OR BARANOF LAKE IN WARM SPRINGS BAY. The area 698 acres, available spawning | grounds, inlet streams and_ tributaries of = ten and a half miles, capable of holding and — feeding, without any cost whatsoever, one — half of the entire output of young salmon = (up to the age of their passing to their | future home in the salt water) of the annual HI pack of Alaska. Plants were made in this|-| lake, October 23, 1919, to February 13, — 1920. In all, 2,690,000 eyed Humpy and Coho. eges buried in the sand and gravel of this = lake. In November 1919 this lake took on its | usual winter coat of ice. (This afforded more © protection to the eggs and hatched fry planted therein, as no water fowl, of any description could eat or destroy them, and there were no fish in the lake to devour — them.) Let us understand this experiment. Had - these eggs been fertilized, and then planted, El without being eyed, or been what is com- | monly known to fish culurist as green eggs,| the loss would have been heavy. As before © stated the eggs would have accumulated | largely in bunches, suffocating them, also, = | exposing them to the cottony vegetable fun- | gas growth, as there would have been as period or from ninety to one hundred days, || Toor | i Page Nine): betore the hatching stage of the eggs would | be reached. Observations on July 6, 1920, Hl from this plant of eggs’ were made. There was located, and seen throughout the lake and its tundra and tributary inlet streams, in schools of thousands, young salmon otf an average length of three and one half inches, in vigorous and healthy condition, and not like the hand reared, domesticated fish, robbed of the instinct of self preserva: tion. One can realize that the cost of maintaining and feeding these fish up to | this size and growth without the assistance | of a natural feeding ground, provided for by nature, would have entailed an enormous outlay of money. Following out this exper- = ment, we found that these young salmon = had passed to sea, the following September, HUNTERS RETURN 1920. That is to say the Humpy Salmon had, while the Coho migrated to their future salt water home in October. Owing to the dif- ferent ages of eggs planted, from October, = ‘© 1919, to February, 1920, a few remained in j@ the lake, and are ‘still there, while those a IF that passed to sea, of the earlier lot, some = were found in the salt water, very sate and - i sound. They had gone over the fifty-foot falls without injury. Be it understood that | _these falls have prevented any and all fish - from entering this body of water. That prob- | ably is the only reason for its being a barren Bl lake. It is not in any sense a mineralized S body of water, and is fed by glacier, spring and tundra water. However, if it had been mineralized it would not prevent spawning. or breeding salmon from entering. TOUTE TOM jaae TH iT puna gpa cus sEassdTaTanECaNUFREaBeCTEsuTaTOuEnsEWG))):(((Osiesevertacveeetetisvertsnnstaeseaset — jump and contort for the rains they know x - — —————— eee Page Ten It has been my observation that we have many heavily mineralized short coast streams in Southeastern Alaska which salmon use as Spawning streams in large numbers, as for example, Duck Creek and Knudson Creek near Juneau. By burying the eyed eggs of salmon in the sand or gravel the inherited instinct and the vital impetus is potential in causing the salmon to return to those same streams or lakes to spawn. In the life study of the salmon, we have. to go to nature, in singleness of heart, and a) work with her, having no other thought but = how to best discover her meaning, rejecting =| and scorning nothing. She long ages ago. discovered that the best way to make any race of men, animals or fish ‘strong, and hardy, was not to shield them from their enemies, but to give them power of resist- | ance against their enemies. ADULT SALMON AND THE NATURAL PROPAGATION. These observations cover a_ period of years from 1907 to the present time. Young salmon passing from fresh to salt | water, their future home in the sea, natur- | ally make for the warmer Japan Current, wherein they find an immense and rich feed ing ground. Here is found the floating red - shrimp crustacean food, shifted by the tides into immense- shoals, acres in_ extent, giving to the water a reddish appearance. During the winter months thousands. of schools of shiners, herring and the young of other fishes are their food. It is true they pass beyond human observation to a large extent, but we have found them not so many hundred miles away from _ the parent stream where they were hatched. We have with us any month of the year certain species of matured salmon. They swarm back to or near the Coast line. When matured, salmon mill around for days and weeks, adapting themselves for the change from salt to fresh water, at the mouth of the parent stream, selecting their mates, and pairing off while in the brackish water. They are weather prophets. You can always tell by watching the movement of salmon if heavy rains are due, for by instinct they 4 is THI yaspavtaaenduannaanounesnanoeensoavscsanaasetsucsavenns 3 =| 5 8 ie 5 : 5 2 5 = 5 Ey] Bl [santaouenstnsnorunatnee(iuonatayesevnnsqaconocusnavoasduuinenigesontnv Divapanveted 5, HuinuodvasnnsunnsnnontieusavensanuncotanineanduvannccnsustasetenstnavannasavanverseantiG)))t((( SEsananTustF0T911 SANTA /AFEITATSESTASULECESUUTA EDI): (((ejurRITIEECIRT Page Eleven || will flood the streams, assisting them to = ‘reach the upriver spawning grounds, over | the otherwise shallow tributaries and sand fz bars. It is, indeed, a struggle for the later Hy run of spawning salmon, in the low tem- peratural glacial water tributary streams, ‘and their remaining strength is yet to be ‘/matched by ice obstructions. In the North- | - ern seas, beaten by storms, chilled by ice =| fet drifts, tormented by furious contending tides, zl a horde of seagulls mutilating their bodies, “picking out their eyes. Beasts, and _ fowl, -|driven with hunger attack them and_ they -match their skill to evade them. With a body rich in oil and fat, nature has truly = prepared the salmon for his mission in life. Hi With a wonderful vitality, he hesitates at | no barrier, to accomplish his mission at spawning, and to permit his dead body to be- 'come food for the young after hatching. Observations on salmon movements through- — out our inland waters will show us that the |) scarcer herring are the smaller are our | |salmon runs. This is one of the main foods ‘for salmon, halibut, and other fish. We =| know, of course, that thousands of dead /salmon are washed to sea at flood time of streams, after they are through spawning and are covered with sand and gravel. If | when salmon spawn in streams. entering ~ =< lakes the decayed bodies of the parent fish HI are washed into the lake, Nature intends ~ El they shall help to produce and increase the | |natural food supply, along with the organic | laden sediment carried therein, where it re- ‘|mains until an over surplus is produced. I This year we had low water conditions at A all the field stations in this district. I have noticed that the first run of salmon spawned Fppascaesuccanueuccceuecsasencsaisesvenei ipganavditecrauqae /in the lower reaches of streams because they | E could not reach spawning grounds higher up. IB The first run of fish spawned here, and the next run used the same beds, gouging and = digging up the eggs of the first spawned [2 fish. It would look like a very wasteful pro- _ cess at best on Nature's part. 1B My next observation was on Admiralty fy Island, at Sprague Creek, where a rack 125 feet in length was in operation to prevent dlthe salmon trout going up stream with the = spawning salmon to feed upon their eggs. _ Four pairs of salmon entered a small side Eg TTT) (MMMM | | He : 3 = were partly covered with sand and coarse Egravel from the recent flood effect of the “stream. The one nest that was under my ‘investigation had about 800 eggs. therein, | and I would say one half were dead on the ¥ (10th day, as up to this time I had not. dis- “turbed them. Before they had reached the ~The eggs of salmon have a marked power 5 of apparently suspending life in the moist Senemies, preventing them from eating the &ges, that he is not always on the spot to ‘fertilize the eggs, and hundreds are washed | “spawned and had the nest covered with ‘by instinct foreseen this before hand, .and Esure enough, a heavy rain, enough to float sla boat over the spawning bed came a few Slilast struggle of life, both fish had run under “eyed’’ stage 200 more were dead, caused ‘probably by nonffertilizaton. I say they died - because of non-fertilization because there was - no fungas growth at that depth of gravel, Page Twelve stream in which the water was very low and splashed and dug with ‘tails and fins about all night, and when the nest was completed it looked like a fair size shaft about three feet wide and 18 or 20 inches deep, during this process Mr. and Mrs. Salmon seemed very insistent that the nest be just so deep and at this spot. I did not get the reason just then, but after they had eravel, this part of the stream went dry. 42 sand and resuming activities again, when sufficient water arrived. They had evidently days after the parent fish had died. In the } an underhanging bank, and later both bodies THE FISHING FLEET ‘even on spawning streams that are crowded with fish. I have noticed that the male is Bicept so very busy fighting off trout or other Feud vba 0sTEvEAtsusUeUEsTsEDADA|uLISUELELTAECLEAEUG))) (((@stsveceenseoebeettivelvusssesdtarossenanesitenstiiiireiuins couleey HI iB Page Thirteen E down stream by the current and are not - © fertilized, but serve as food for other fish. — iE mies is the fish known as molly grub, Eng- fe lish and Irish lords, bull-heads and by other - local names. "find young salmon in what is known as the = “food sac stage” in the stream. For he is STsnsseuateagienni _ after the sac is absorbed, even though the = bed may be two feet deep in the gravel. Tome LG ‘fry, and he knows by instinct that every- 2 thing, fish, fowl, and man, is his) enemy. Upon the first shadow upon the water like -a flash he has gone under rocks and snags. ‘How different from the pond raised fish that feed out of your hand and do not know fear. No spawning nest seems to have the full ‘amount of eggs of the female, and yet : there seems to be only one nest. I do not, of course, understand this part of it. ‘This year’s observation discloses during our oper- ation in taking Humpy Salmon eggs @n over ‘surplus of seven to eleven spawning males « ime dp) 2 short tundra coast stream and_ brackish ;es stuaries for spawning purposes. THT TY oT on the decayed body of the parent fish, = which by this time has gone through a pro- “cess of purification in the sand, Nature’s - own laboratory. The flesh disintergrates intc "small white cornmeal particles. By a wise Funosnsnuangnantesuanoeavinanil “when flies, bugs, and the larva of insect Hi Nature provides wonderful vitality for the | o*°one female. This species uses largely the | The young fry when hatched first feed | - One of the most persistent andly dead ene- | Never under natural conditions can you — = buried in the sand and gravel, and he has eI - the inherited power to work up and out of it. DistnsoescvendisssvsisusenssusuessssemBotecscunanapentveossssceensecuvonvensestusennsgnes ~aarrnaanaii TOOT OTT = precaution of Nature this food is available | - during the late fall or early spring months | Cs é ‘life are not to be found. By an instinct — "or scent they find this food. Now, while - salmon trout are found in salmon spawning = streams eating salmon eggs, don’t forget EI that young salmon are in turn feeding on =the spawn and young of the salmon trout EI =| nature holds an equalibrium on all forms of life. The big fish live off the little ones. &) There is no mercy in the watery elements. RG is true that there is an over abundance =\of salmon trout in some of our streams. But “EE TTT) ( Gio S pe ao 2) I es for both are brought to the same stream for E jee same purpose of reproduction. Thus | Page Fourteen Frundaeavauecnsvaenve| Touma Nature intends that one should live off the other and her law of balance has been upset by man until the trout hold the upper hand - of the salmon in some streams. Young sal- mon feed very vigorously on the small eggs and young of the salmon trout, until the change from fresh to salt water. Trout of -/no species do not feed heavily during their spawning period, and the young salmon, which) feed heavily on their eggs at this time, will “be seen on their spawning beds. Young salmon also have a decided habit ot schooling with salmon trout, but this Soeuuusbastucvedecvuavecuuacoester Teeyeusnaveeucusveuoen I 1@ iparsusvanaceecdUovasuesausceneseattnteuuetouvevecsreTti ipuavuserdoabeugtrbst Where Trout Abound apparent friendship lasts only until the | salmon completely surround the bunch, and |) eat them all. Some interesting facts have been brought ©) to light on such streams as have been — racked and screened to prevent the ascent | of salmon trout with the spawning salmon. Salmon trout are found in salmon streams only during the spawning season. I mean by this that they are by no means numerous, |) /although many of the smaller size fish may | | be found. Where there are no salmon trout ‘there are no salmon, for under natural con- ditions you find one with the other. It is Nature’s way of distributing and balancing the food proposition in the watery domain. I will also state that the larger Dolly = 4] 13] | juxpauecuvencuaucuuoeduttecuaraseerouausenl SEUREEEEDUASEDETETATEPUY pvdELuveDTsoseqs07.G))) {{(@l-usvssecist sTaseussereweesnaaele@eastsccentsUssi0uj2/713000000004 Page Fifteen Varden or salmon trout of the short coast - streams go to salt water for the winter, but. = where large lakes are found on the larger - streams, they remain in the deep water. lakes, for that period. By the means of | |) racking streams a census of the number of I spawning salmon and the_ species. therein entering was procured. Much confusion is due to the marking = or tagging of salmon, as no two hatcheries have the same marks. Salmon have been caught in salt and fresh water, mutilated by eels, eagles, seagulls, seals and a host of their numerous enemies, detroying and con- - fusing the marks of identification. “MODERN PROPAGATION.” At the hatchery of the United States Bureau of Fisheries at Yes Bay, Alaska, in © 1907 and 1908, where 50 million Sockeye _ salmon eggs were taken, and liberated in the | food sac stage, in the inlet stream of Yes _ Lake, was where I first got the ‘inside IE hunch” of the failure and breakdown of all our salmon hatcheries. The slaughter of = these helpless young salmon was appauling. i: It is the truth for me to say that if all the E host of trout, bullheads, Irish or English - lords, or whatever you may call this speci¢ - of worthless fish, and if all the water fowl IE had been notified by wireless, “to come and get them,” they could not have arrived any / sooner. For by the wonderful instinct or - scent given by them by Nature, they all got this prepared banquet. It was some _ feed, - to beleve me. I never saw such a contented bunch of trout, fish, and birds in all my life. IE They really appeared to be friendly towards “all of us. It was a revelation to them, and -also to me. At the present writing it is 4 ‘= wonderful trout stream, but the salmon are gone. We had been feeding the trout too heavily, increasing their numbers and an- niliating the salmon. I was now thoroughly satisfied that our _ hatchery system was out of order, and de- = ided to hack up a little and see if I could | =| discover a better system, one more like Hf _ Nature’s teaching. I could make no change : - while in the service of the Bureau of Fish: _ ries so I left Alaska, and through Mr. A Henry O’Mally and Mr. Harry McAllister, Bi} ics01ccsct 1s 000S0T ST SSTSLSCUSSESBSESEODS sdevssraenaewsG))) :(((Qsevseenesccstensatevsdtuascseeasarssstsvastenstelicselerare TOOT Toro TH TT oO _ to who would have jurisdiction over salmon = ' not because of any inherent objections to the - | man appointed’ for no matter how great his |5 TOMO) § ( Gun ieperrsgt casi tssensssusaeataen ved Page Sixteen the latter a very good friend, who was the — Master Fish Warden of Oregon, I secured — the position as Superintendent of the Trask River Hatchery near Tillamook, Ore., in 1909. I now started on the pond rearing system, - and secured a first class lesson from = Nature. I first found that the ponds were so — costly to build, they would not justify the — geat expense involved and began to look = for more natural methods. I next took a_ part of a lot of 90,000 Coho salmon anl — eyed them in the hatchery. —— oe eee THEE) (( GFL oe SinuugeatanangavoNMaDacepauenvante ELT Ge TOMAS) es | TT -sorted to beyond the artificial eyed stag be equal in quantity to the eggs dehocieedie ‘the natural barrier between the lake andj ae } peasscuetesissusunsensesnarnsesavussenseasestenerseesrventairartiG))):(((Oleerccscastststectisceenenceeserestslisvennentisieuestetisiset fc Page Twenty -One. “| Successful popagation artificially to the | eyed stage is therefore the starting point, = the object being the natural development | to the free swimming stage of the resulting fry with practically the same degree of success as a natural hatch. iE In the experiments conducted at Bar-|| anot Lake, Chilkoot Lake and_ various” streams in Alaska, apparent success has SIE been achieved in the natural processes re- a) By planting eyed eggs in the gravelly” beds of these waters, a hatch. estimated to was obtained. In Baranof Lake the try grew to fingerling size in a few months: and migrated to sea early in the Fall. Any maturing salmon from this brood will be prevented from returning to the Lake by sea. This will be unfortunate for this phase of the experiment for the parent water theory is no doubt correct. Observa- | tions will be made at the pool below the falls of the outlet stream to ascertain if a: greater number of fish appear there than|s heretofore, when their period for spawning arrives. I Eyed humpback salmon eggs planted in a small tributary stream of Chilkoot Lake produced a return of mature fish in three} years. None of this variety had even been | seen in these waters before. We have a handicap of weather condt- A tions as related to depositing of eyed eggs|5 in the sand of some species of salmon. But, | much in our favor of barren lakes, un-/: polluted stream and vast irrigration and | >power projects has not deprived our Sal-. mon of hundreds of miles of available | spawning streams in comparison with the/ i Pacific States. In summing up the evidence before us i we have the following distinctive features: 1. The conditions which existed borer the packing- industry started when the natural equilibrium was maintained. 2. Demands upon the natural supply by that industry. 3. The loss in natural supply occas- ioned by the increased depredations of the! iB | HE 8 TTT E Page Twenty-Two predatory enemies of salmon through its | various stages of life. 1a 4. Loss in natural supply through ill HI advised and improper hatchery operations, 4! unknown until just recently. | 5. Failure of all methods, in practice, to augment or maintain the depleted supply. of the salmon. (Results of natural propa- gation and the census of streams.) What knowledge we have regarding = predicated upon personal opinions and ob- | servations are extant. None of these have || proven dependable, on the other hand they = are often visionary and misleading. In relation to the 5th feature, it has = been practically demonstrated that ninety- fice per cent of the eggs properly handled -/can be brought to the eyed stage, whereas it has been the observation and experience of the writer extending through many | i |eggs of the adult female salmon spawned “naturally ever reach that condition.) The | causes for this are touched upon elsewhere. EI (a) Saving one-half of the cost of plant, z equipment and operating expenses. (b) Eliminating the entire cost of re- taining ponds and feeding of the fry. (c) Preventing the loss of fry in per- mitting them to obtain natural food in their own way. (And abolishing confinement, ls which tends toward rendering the species Tavescnnnevusseussusegucvsueeneneuceneneuel | barren. ) (d) Providing for the retention of the ‘liberty of migration.) ie} ply. Add to this a curtailment of catch le consistent with the visible supply and a |reasonable hope may be held that the de- sired end may be accomplished. 18} In order to obtain properly matured | parent fish for the eyeing operations it will | be necessary to rack the most _ prolifie ‘streams carrying the desired varieties. (This will afford protection to ‘those fish which f i: | i fssnnerorteesnennavarrensesnanaecaveveovente SUarsUanaasovenasenouvacssnesuteaueueqsaresttutisisitestszi31°@)) )§ (Gun 6. Lack of reliable information relat-_| ing to important characteristics and habits, F these features leads to much speculation and | debate. Many ideas, theories and _ beliefs: /years, (that not over five per cent of the | | — natural instinct of self preservation (and 4) These and attending requirements point 5 toward a successful campaign for the build- | |. ‘ing up and maintaining of our salmon sup- benopabenoeagspegnanes eer) ) (GrastecennsunanennvantanparsoyapsevvancurpapspaVocconevcanyaneqensnqanoccnnnaneyaneneattty JIT Sopnsansnsnsndpatgapnpvaneconavsvensstanesnnis ti MIU A OC will be permitted to spawn naturally), an opportunity for the invaluable stream cen- sus and way for destroying the voracious salmon trout. Observations at our racks female fish or the humpback variety.) In some streams the proportion has been as much as ten to one. Referring to the 6th feature it is true we are still groping in the dark as to the most salient features and the progress * salmon will be destroyed from a commercial = standpoint, before the important facts can be ascertained. lessly hunted to extinction for their hides at one dollar each, the great forests of the Pacific slope have been unwittingly exposed to axe and fire until their complete de- depelted through strenuous over fishing and its preservation and protection. unrestricted operations the people of Alaska to be preserved. of procrastination or temporizing as_ its during the last two years have shown a) remarkable predominence of (male over: has been so slow it is feared that the? The passenger pigeon was. ruthlessly and wantonly destroyed, the buffalo merci-| structions is in sight, certain varieties of. salmon in the waters of the Pacific States = now the Alaska salmon is facing its inevit-_ able end through lack of proper means for = From these lessons of wanton waste and = Dinardenanaed that considerable labratory and field re--— search work has been accomplished but rf) y juvasuvesuensnunsnesseuassusntnendeenennt jauanensnsesosanvcocenansusuesvaqeenny and in British Columbia have been greatly = must learn the necessity for prompt and — effective measures if their great industry is — FE This is the most important question be- - =| fore the Territory today. It will not permit |& needs are insistent and demand immediate — = attention. Gam nm 7] Page Twenty-Four s & 2 | oO & Zi, ao 3} Uz es Q = > Q its] re] IB Es) S| beat sat TOLL TLE HEI ie ANI Pt bed we = : im Tye be 444 9% Nitvts ADEE) yt AK! Wy Nhl uh a mie With eat } Yi heted ite Hey, rity hited iit AM abe head Aah yi wey i ) taal wee Wyhtetiye mm oa ae rv ee ee ne Pb et tala rye ae wit ed