Table 19. — Catch of chinook and coho salmon and num- 

 ber of boats in commercial troll fisheries of Washington 

 and British Columbia, 1952-66 



Year 



1952. 

 1953. 

 1964. 

 1955. 

 1956. 

 1957. 

 1958. 

 1959. 

 1960. 

 1961. 

 1962. 

 1963. 

 1964. 

 1965. 

 1966. 



1 WashiTiEton State nppaitmoiit ol Fisheries (1964) and Iiitoniational 

 North Pacific Fisheries C'oiiimissioii (1952-66). 

 ' Cleaver (1967); data are actually number of licenses sold. 



merciiil (.-atch of luitclierv rliiuook salmon of tlie 

 1961 brood. To consei\e the chinook .salmon re- 

 source, fishing seasons ha\e been steadily short- 

 ened (Pulford, 1964). The length of the fishing 

 season has been decreased from 272 days in 1936 

 to 101 days in 1960 and SO days in 1966. It would 

 seem, then, that the present fishery is capable of 

 making additional catches without increasing the 

 present number of fishing luiits. 



AVe also assume that additional running e.\- 

 penses of vessels and labor costs — attributed to the 

 conti-ibution of these hatcheries to the salmon 

 resource — are negligible for the present fisheries. 

 This assumption is reasonable if one considers : ( 1 ) 

 the estimated catch of hatchery fish (287,000 fish) 

 is small compared to annual catches of salmon 

 (e.g., Washington and Ih'itish Columbia troll 

 catches, table 19), and (2) crews of vessels engaged 



111 fishing are effectively precluded from working 

 at otlier occupations during closed fishing periods 

 (Crutchfieldetal.).^" 



Thus, the gross economic value to the connnercial 

 fisherman of additional catches of chinook salmon 

 made possible by hatchery releases essentially 

 constitutes a net benefit. 



Kstimation of net value for the catch of hatchery 

 chinook salmon l)y sport fishermen was made from 

 an assumed net value per fish of $8.87.^' This value 

 represents an estimate of the amount an angler is 

 willing to pay for the right to fish. It was ob- 

 taineil by e.xtrapolation from a 1962 survey of 

 Oregon salmon-steelhead anglers reported upon by 

 Brown, Singh, and Castle ( l'.)64 ) . 



Calculation of total net value ($1,'.»I7,(H);;) of 

 the commercial and sport catch of fall chinook 

 salmon that originated from the hatcheries under 

 study is shown in table 20. Tiie benefit to cost ratio 

 is obtained from the ratio $l,917,(l():',/$s;il,r.22 and 

 is estimated as2.o: 1. 



This benefit to cost ratio applies, of course, only 

 to chinook salmon at the study hatcheries. As indi- 

 cated above for Klickitat Hatchery (table 18), 

 other species of salmon (principally coho) are 

 raised at these hatcheries. To fully use all pro- 

 duction facilities, the hatchery complex is now 

 managetl on a niultispecies basis. A more complete 

 and meaningful benefit to cost analyses of the 

 hatchery system must, therefore, await comple- 

 tion (1969) of the study of the contribution that 

 jiatchery-reared coho salmon make to the fisheries. 



"■U.S. Department of the Interior. Bureau of Commercial Fish- 

 eries. Division of Economics. in(i6. .\n economic evaluation of 

 Columbia Kiver anadromous fish programs. .58 pp. [Processed.] 



T.VBLE 20. — Estimated value of the ratch of fall chinook salmon of 1061 brood that were released from study halchcries, by type 



of fishery 



Fisliery Ape Fish Sample Average weight ' Tota! weight i Value per Total 



size unit catch- value 



Number 



Nuntber offisll Lbs. Kg. Llis. Kg. Dollar) Dollars 



Sport All 43,985 '8.870 390,147 



Ocean commercial 2 43 27 4.00 1.81 172 78 .380 6.1 



3 115.765 2.040 8.45 3.83 978.130 443.689 .435 425,487 



4 37.141 .638 15.29 6.94 572,473 259,663 .610 349.208 



5 4,797 .66 18.71 S. 49 89.752 40,712 .650 68,339 



Columbia River commercial 2 1,942 22 6.11 2.77 11.836 6.381 .360 4.272 



3 32,349 870 17.98 8.16 681.635 263,838 .360 209,389 



4. 48,275 1,135 26.10 11.84 1,269,978 571,528 .300 453,502 



5 2.739 57 28.13 12.76 77,048 34,960 .344 26,604 



Total 287,325 --- 1,917,003 



' Weights for ocean commercial fisheries are dressed weights, and those for ColumLiia River fisheries are round weights. Original weights were in pounds 

 for .\d-RM marked fish. 



- Entries for commercial fisheries (dollars per pound) are based on prices paid for Washington State troll landings obtained from Dale Ward, Washington 

 State Department of Fisheries (personal communication). 



a See footnote 17 of text. 



386 ''.S- FISH AND WILDLIFK SKRVICK 



