south net movements suggest that maturing echo 

 salmon in coastal waters of Oregon and Washing- 

 ton, unlike stocks of salmon from the Gulf of 

 Alaska and Bering Sea regions, are not highly 

 migratory with precisely directed and timed 

 movements. Many juvenile coho salmon off Ore- 

 gon and Washington also reside in coastal waters 

 and do not appear to undertake rapid or long mi- 

 grations out of this region (Pearcy and Fisher 

 fn. 1). 



Of the 7 recoveries of chinook salmon released 

 off Oregon, 5 were off Oregon, in the Columbia 

 River, or in coastal Oregon rivers; 1 was off north- 

 ern California; and 1 was off Washington. Of the 

 9 recoveries of chinook salmon released off Wash- 

 ington, 3 were in the Columbia River, 3 off Ore- 

 gon, 2 off Washington, and 1 in British Columbia. 

 Two chinook salmon tagged off the west coast of 

 Vancouver Island were recovered in the Strait of 

 Juan de Fuca (Fig. 1, Table 2). 



Estimated net migration of chinook salmon av- 

 eraged 201 km and ranged from to 685 km (Fig. 

 2A). Unlike coho salmon, which spend only 1 year 

 in the ocean and which were mostly recovered 

 within 150 days of release, almost half of the chi- 

 nook salmon, which may spend several years in 

 the ocean, were recovered after more than 200 

 days at liberty. Mean net migration rate of chi- 

 nook salmon was 1.9 km/day (n = 16, Fig. 2B). As 

 was found for coho salmon, net migration rates of 

 chinook salmon were many times lower than 

 rates found for salmon tagged in offshore waters 

 of the North Pacific Ocean. Therefore, some chi- 

 nook salmon also appear to undertake meander- 

 ing feeding movements in coastal waters off Ore- 

 gon, Washington, and Vancouver Island. There 

 was no evidence for acceleration of migration rate 

 late in summer (Fig. IC). 



Tagged maturing chinook salmon differed from 

 coho salmon in that most moved to the south after 

 release (Fig. 2D). Columbia River and many 

 coastal Oregon stocks of chinook salmon are 

 caught in the ocean fisheries predominantly to 

 the north of Oregon, i.e., north of their natal sys- 

 tems (Wahle et al. 1981; Garrison 1985). Some of 

 the maturing chinook salmon that we tagged may 

 have been moving slowly toward their natal sys- 

 tems from the north. One chinook salmon was 

 recovered 319 days after release over 656 km to 

 the south, off northern California (Figs. 1, 2D). 



Other species of salmonids tagged off Oregon 

 and Washington were recovered only in very low 

 numbers. There were only 2 recoveries from 164 

 tagged pink and 36 tagged chum salmon. The 



greatest net movement was by a chum salmon 

 tagged on 1 June 1985 off Seaside, OR, just south 

 of the Columbia River and recovered on 8 August 

 1985 in Hecate Strait, B.C. (great circle distance 

 830 km). This fish was at liberty for 68 days and 

 its minimum movement rate as 12.2 km/day. 



Acknowledgments 



We thank all those fishermen that returned 

 tags to us and personnel of the Oregon Depart- 

 ment of Fish and Wildlife, Washington Depart- 

 ment of Fisheries, and Canadian Department of 

 Fisheries and Oceans for their help in recovering 

 tags. Tom Quinn, Bob Garrison, and an anony- 

 mous reviewer provided helpful comments on the 

 manuscript. This research was sponosored by Na- 

 tional Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA (NA-85- 

 ABH-00025) and Office of Sea Grant, Department 

 of Commerce (Grant No. NA-81-AA-0-00086, R/ 

 OPF-17). 



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