60» 



N. 



se" 



162 



160' 



158 



156° 



154" 



152' W. 



Figure 2. — Southwestern Alaska, showing major sockeye salmon river systems. 



and assisted in studies of spawning ground 

 capacities. John B. Owen helped compile and 

 analyze historical and current records of catch 

 and escapement. Herbert W. Jaenicke was re- 

 sponsible for counting smolts. Robert J. Ellis, 

 William R. Heard, and Benson Drucker super- 

 vised studies of young fish. Ellis also assisted in 

 studies of the spawning ground capacities. 

 Richard Straty was responsible for studies of 

 the timing of the migration of spawning fish in 

 the Naknek system. 



For the FRI — William F. Royce, Robert L. 

 Burgner, and Ole A. Mathisen were responsible 

 for general planning and supervision. Burgner 

 and Ted S. Y. Koo supervised studies on the 

 systems tributary to Nushagak Bay. Donald 

 Rogers assisted in studies of the rearing areas in 

 the systems tributary to Nushagak Bay. Mathi- 

 sen, assisted by Orra E. Kerns, supervised studies 

 on the Kvichak system. Royce supervised the 

 studies of David Narver on the Chignik system. 



Biologists who performed the research in each 

 area compiled and analyzed the data on the his- 

 torical and current catch and escapement in 

 that area. 



The Alaska Department of Fish and Game 

 provided samples of scales and data for recent 

 years on catch and escapement, length frequency 

 of adults in escapements for many of the rivers, 

 distribution of escapement for the Nushagak 

 fishing district for 1960-62, and lengths, ages, 

 and numbers of smolts for some rivers. 



The broad aim of the intensified study of sock- 

 eye salmon was to determine the optimum es- 

 capement for each of the major systems in 

 southwestern Alaska. In planning the investiga- 

 tion, we recognized that in the short time avail- 

 able little progress toward attaining our goal 

 could be made by a detailed study of a single 

 lake or river system. General principles ap- 

 plicable to each lake or system could be developed 

 more rapidly by comparing the major sockeye 

 salmon systems with respect to their salmon pro- 

 duction and the factors in the spawning grounds 

 or lakes that might limit this production. The 

 bases for comparison were as follows : (1) type, 

 quality, amount, and capacity of spawning 

 areas; (2) type, quality, amount, and capacity 

 of nursery areas; and (3) history and charac- 

 teristics of sockeye salmon runs. Not all aspects 



408 



U.S. FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



