MOSHER: SCALE FEATURES OF SOCKEYE SALMON 



and North America from International North 

 Pacific Fisheries Commission (INPFC) sources. 

 The approximate ranking on each continent of 

 the importance of the coastal areas is as follows: 



Asia (from Hanamiira, 1906 

 and Krogins, 1958) 



Ozernaya River 1 



Kamchatka River 2 



Bolshaya River 3 



Paratunka River 4 



Apuka River 5 

 Okhota and 



Kukhtuy Rivers 6 



North America {from 

 catch data of Table 1) 



Bristol Bay 1 



British Columbia 2 



Alaska Peninsula 3 

 Washington and 



Oregon 4 



Cook Inlet 5 



Southeastern Alaska 6 



Copper River area 7 



Columbia River 8 

 North of Bristol 



Bay 9 



The abundance and catch of sockeye salmon in 

 most areas can fluctuate widely between years, 

 however. Some of these variations in catch are 

 revealed in Appendix Table 1 of the catch of the 

 5 years, 1964-68, which series includes one high 

 production year in Bristol Bay — 1965. 



The distribution of spawning streams in Asia 

 extends from approximately lat 66° N near the 

 Anadyr River southward to the tip of the Kam- 

 chatka Peninsula and the Kurile Islands, and 

 westward to the Okhota and Kukhtuy Rivers 

 on the northern coast of the Okhotsk Sea (Hana- 

 mura, 1966, 1967). Berg (1948) indicated that 

 the species was very rare in northern Hokkaido 

 Island. Krogius and Krokhin (1956) concluded 

 that approximately 90 ';r of the total sockeye 

 catch along the Far Eastern Coast of the USSR 

 was produced in the Ozernaya and Kamchatka 

 Rivers of the Kamchatka Peninsula. 



The distribution of North American spawning 

 streams extends from the Noatak River of Kot- 

 zebue Sound in Northern Alaska, southward to 

 the Columbia River of Oregon and Washington 

 (Aro and Shepard, 1967; Atkinson et al., 1967). 

 The streams can be conveniently grouped into 

 three major geographical areas for study: (1) 

 the Columbia River to and including British 

 Columbia: (2) Bristol Bay, Alaska, and areas 

 north of Bristol Bay; and (3) the area between 

 Bristol Bay and British Columbia. In many 

 years each area contributes about one-third of 

 the North American catch. Normally, the catch 

 of sockeye salmon north of Bristol Bay is insig- 



nificant in relation to the number of fish taken 

 in the Bay, but consumption and barter of salm- 

 on is substantial, especially by residents along 

 the Kuskokwim River. 



Thus, plates of representative scales of fish 

 from southern Kamchatka, Bristol Bay, and the 

 areas north of Bristol Bay, central and south- 

 eastern Alaska, British Columbia, and the Co- 

 lumbia River (the coastal areas listed in Table 

 1) are included in the first part of this paper. 



The scale samples used in a previous study 

 (Mosher, 1968) with a few samples, which have 

 recently become available from additional areas, 

 were used for this study.' The areas from which 

 these samples were collected are listed in Table 2. 

 Figure 2 shows the approximate location of the 

 areas mentioned in the text and on the plates, 



SELECTION OF SCALE FEATURES 



LINKED TO VARIOUS STOCKS 



OR AREAS 



My previous paper (Mosher, 1968) shows in 

 detail the features of sockeye salmon scales and 

 the range of variations in many characters. This 

 paper continues the study of sockeye salmon 

 scales to show the relation of many of the var- 

 iations to locality and how these variations in 

 scale characters can be used to identify the main- 

 land origin of sockeye salmon taken in offshore 

 waters. 



A number of age groups have been found in 

 all populations of sockeye salmon that have been 

 studied. These age groups are based on the 

 number of years the fish lived in fresh water 

 and in the ocean. Over the geographical range 

 of the species, individuals with scales showing 

 freshwater ages from 0. to 4., ocean ages 

 from .1 to .4, and total ages of 0.1 to 



* Contributions of the following agencies to the salmon 

 scale sampling program are gratefully acknowledged: 

 The Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Juneau, 

 Alaska; the Fisheries Research Board of Canada, Na- 

 naimo, B.C.; the Fisheries Agency of Japan, Tokyo, 

 Japan; and the Fish Commission of Oregon, Portland, 

 Oreg. In addition, special thanks are given to Dr. I. 

 Lagunov of the Pacific Institute of Fisheries Research 

 and Oceanography (TINRO), Petropavlovsk. Kamchat- 

 ka, USSR, who kindly supplied a series of samples from 

 USSR streams. 



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