172 abstracts: ichthyology 



ICHTHYOLOGY. — Alaska fisheries and fur industries in 1911. Barton 

 W. EvERMANN, Bureau of Fisherie.s Document No. 766, pp. 100. 

 Issued December 16, 1912. 



The Alaska Fisheries Service, which for the past two years has included 

 administration of the Alaska fur resources also, is reported upon for 

 the calendar year 1911 under the four departments of general adminis- 

 tration, statistics, fish culture, and fur-seal service. The salmon fish- 

 ery grounds, packing establishments and hatcheries were inspected as 

 usual, and violations of law were duly reported and dealt with. The 

 fisheries as a whole were found to have yielded 177,572,873 pounds of 

 products, worth $16,863,728. The furs of all kinds shipped out of the 

 territory had a value of $802,750, of which $432,231 was the value of 

 sealskins. 



From the standpoint of science the most important work was the con- 

 tinuation of observations in Nushagak Bay and Wood River, where the 

 salmon runs are being counted yearly for the purpose of developing, thru 

 the knowledge thus obtained, a satisfactory code of fishery regulations. 

 The red salmon run was found to have decreased 30 per cent in the three 

 years since 1908, but interpretation of this decrease depends, of course, 

 upon the solution of now undetermined questions in the life history of the 

 salmon. Among the most practical questions still unanswered are: 



1. Do all species of salmon regularly return to the home stream, i.e., 

 the waters where hatched, or are they diverted at any time by adverse 

 winds, food conditions, etc.? 



2. May the run in a stream be built up by closing the stream to fish- 

 ing, and if so to what extent? 



3. What is the normal age of each species and what period is spent 

 in fresh water? 



4. What percentage of fry under normal conditions is produced from 

 eggs deposited naturally? 



5. Are any disadvantages suffered by fish artificially hatched? 

 Somewhat inconclusive evidence confirming the parent-stream theory 



has resulted from experiments in marking young salmon, and indications 

 are negative as to the utility of closing streams to fishing. The third of 

 the above questions alone seems to be approaching solution, by means of 

 examination of scales of the fish. A rather hasty examination of scales 

 of a small number of Nushagak salmon in 1911 leads to the conclusion 

 that the greater number of adults return at five years of age instead of 

 four as has been befieved on the basis of the Fraser River runs. 



Ethel M. Smith. 



