the Columbia River mouth, 40 km from the release 

 site (B. Culver footnote 1). Coombs (1979) reported 

 that a tagged black rockfish migrated 619 km, from 

 the central Oregon coast northward to Puget Sound. 

 Eight out of 10 recoveries from 153 tagged yellow- 

 tail rockfish indicated that there is a pattern of 

 inshore to offshore migration. Seven recoveries were 

 off the Washington coast, from Cape Flattery (144 

 km from the release site) to Willapa Harbor, and one 

 was recaptured from Queen Charlotte Sound, B.C. 

 The latter recovery, however, could have been caught 

 near Cape Flattery, since it was recovered by a U.S. 

 trawler that fished both the Cape Flattery and Queen 

 Charlotte grounds on the same trip. The time be- 

 tween release and recapture ranged from 58 to 2,2 14 

 d for the 8 yellowtail rockfish recaptured offshore. 

 The other two recoveries of tagged yellowtail rock- 

 fish were at the tagging site, one 18 d and the other 

 1,194 d after tagging. 



The movement of yellowtail rockfish from Puget 

 Sound to the open coast may concur with time of 

 maturation. According to our observations, the pop- 

 ulation of this species in northern Puget Sound 

 apparently consists of immature individuals of 7 yr or 

 younger in contrast to the other three species tagged 

 for which the individuals recruited to the fisheries are 

 apparently mostly mature. Moulton (1977) and 

 Gowan (1983) found only immature yellowtail rock- 

 fish in Puget Sound. Commercial trawl catches of 

 yellowtail rockfish off the Washington coast contain 

 mostly older (>7 yr) individuals than those found in 

 Puget Sound, and the coastal catch is mostly adults 

 according to length-maturity relationships (Gunder- 

 son et aL 1 980), length- at-age relationships (Fraiden- 

 burg 1980), and age composition of offshore catches 

 (Fraidenburg 1981). 



Tagged yellowtail rockfish in inside waters of 

 southeast Alaska showed strong homing tendencies, 

 returning to site of first capture when experimentally 

 displaced as far as 22.5 km (Carlson and Haight 

 1972). The reported ages offish tagged in this home- 

 site study were 7-16 yr, and many or all could have 

 been mature. Carlson and Haight labeled them as 

 adults in the title of their paper. 



Our evidence supports the contention that yellow- 

 tail rockfish in Puget Sound are immature and 

 migratory, heading for the ocean before maturation. 

 Traits of adopting, adhering to, or returning to home- 

 sites may become firmly developed only after 

 maturation. The probable mechanism maintaining 

 Puget Sound populations is drift or migration from 

 the ocean of juveniles spawned offshore. W. Lenarz 3 

 believed there is a similar pattern for brown rockfish 

 in San Francisco Bay; there they are virtually all 



juveniles, ages 5 or younger, leaving inshore waters 

 before onset of maturity (age 6 or 7). 



Acknowledgments 



Financial support was by the Washington Sea Grant 

 Program (Grant Contract 04-7-158-4421-RF-8). 

 Several individuals with the Washington Depart- 

 ment of Fisheries helped with tag processing, includ- 

 ing J. Beam, K. Swenson, and G. Bargmann. R. 

 Trumble and R. Buckley, with the Washington 

 Department of Fisheries, reviewed the manuscript 

 and their suggestions were helpful. One of the 

 referees gave a very detailed review and thanks are 

 given for the resulting improvements in the paper. 



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