FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 71, NO. 3 



The information on tagging was taken from 

 studies conducted by Canada, fishery agencies 

 of the States of Oregon and Washington, and 

 FRI (Appendix Tables 1, 2). Canadian steel- 

 head trout tag and recovery data were taken 

 from an unpublished summary provided by 

 FRBC. Tag recovery data for the States of Ore- 

 gon and Washington and FRI for 1956-60 were 

 summarized by Hartt (1962, 1966). Subsequent 

 data were taken from unpublished records of 

 FRI. 



Figures 5 and 6 show the distribution of 

 recoveries of steelhead trout tagged in 1957-69. 

 Of the steelhead trout marked or tagged in in- 

 shore waters by the state fishery agencies, only 

 two are known to have been recovered in off- 

 shore waters (Figure 6). In contrast, 63 of those 

 tagged offshore by FRBC and FRI were 

 recovered in inshore waters, and those tagged 

 fish, with one exception, had been released in 

 the eastern North Pacific Ocean east of long. 

 160°W. A single steelhead trout tagged in 

 offshore waters was later recovered in offshore 

 waters (Hartt, 1962). 



Figure 5. — Tagging locations and recovery area (like 

 symbols) of individual steelhead trout tagged by Canadian 

 research vessels, 1961-67. 



802 



Tagging experiments show that some steel- 

 head trout of North American origin make 

 extensive migrations. The directional movement 

 of steelhead trout in the spring and summer is 

 exemplified by the successive catches of a single 

 identifiable fish (Hartt, 1966). This fish, marked 

 by a fin clip, was released in the Alsea River, 

 Oreg., in April 1958. On 5 September of the 

 same year, it was caught and tagged just off 

 the Albatross Bank south of Kodiak (lat. 

 52°42'N, long. 151°49'W). In 5 mo this steel- 

 head trout had traveled some 2,963 km (1,600 

 miles) to the northwest at a minimum speed of 

 19.8 km (10.7 miles) per day. On 5 Febmary 

 1960, 17 mo later, it was caught at Alsea River 

 Hatchery. This return demonstrates the cap- 

 ability of steelhead trout to undertake extensive 

 feeding migrations in the open ocean and still 

 find their home streams when ready to spawn. 

 The recovery of another tagged fish indicates 

 that some steelhead trout migrate westward 

 across the North Pacific Ocean at least as fa^* as 

 the Japanese fishery area in the western North 

 Pacific (Hartt, 1962). The fish was tagged on ] 6 

 August 1957, 40 nautical miles south of A ml) a 

 Island (lat. .51°26'N, long. 173°47'W) and 

 recaptured at sea 1 yr later in July 1958, about 

 1,126 km (700 miles) to the southwest (lat. 

 47°12'N, long. 167°35'E) by a Japanese gill net 

 vessel. The origin of that fish is not known, 

 although another steelhead trout tagged in the 

 same general vicinity on 19 July 1957 was 

 recaptured in the Chehalis River, Wash., on 13 

 March 1958 (Hartt, 1962). Additional evidence 

 that some steelhead trout of North American 

 origin make extensive westward migrations was 

 obtained in 1969. A steelhead trout tagged and 

 released by the Washington Department of 

 Fisheries in the Stillaguamish River, Wash., in 

 April 1968, had traveled some 4,213 km 

 (2,275 miles) westward when I recaptured it 

 south of Adak Island (lat. 50° 00', long. 176° 

 22'W) in the central Aleutian Islands in August 

 1969 on a cruise of the NMFS research vessel 

 George B. Kelez. 



Recoveries in coastal streams of steelhead 

 trout tagged offshore provided clear evidence of 

 extensive intermingling of North American 

 stocks in the eastern North Pacific Ocean and 

 the Gulf of Alaska. Some fish recovered in 



I 



