FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 76, NO. 1 



finfishes to U.S. fishermen. The net economic 

 value of salmon sport fishing in the United States 

 was $77.7 million in 1970 (Wahle et al. 1974). 



Initially, Program hatcheries were constructed 

 to emphasize rearing of fall chinook salmon rather 

 than coho and spring chinook salmon and 

 steelhead trout because of a serious decline of this 

 run in the early 1950's (Van Hyning 1973). 



Releases of migrant size fall chinook salmon 

 have ranged from 10 million fish from 6 hatcheries 

 in 1949 to 94 million fish from 17 hatcheries in 

 1973. Prior to the study reported by Worlund et al. 

 (1969), little was known about the contribution of 

 these releases to the commercial and sport 

 fisheries. Some marking experiments had demon- 

 strated that hatchery releases contribute to 

 fisheries, but because such experiments were lim- 

 ited and designed for other purposes, the contribu- 

 tion had not been estimated. 



Although reports were written for each of the 

 four broods of fall chinook salmon (Worlund et al. 

 1969; Rose and Arp^; Arp et al.^; Wahle et al.^), 

 brood years were not compared and individual 

 hatchery contributions, values, and benefits were 

 not evaluated or compared. No new studies of this 

 scale on the Columbia River have been initiated to 

 supersede the 1962 through 1969 data. In addi- 

 tion, the contributions, values, and benefits in the 

 individual brood year reports are not comparable 

 with those presented for Columbia River hatchery 

 coho salmon (Wahle et al. 1974). Therefore, we 

 compiled this report to supplement, summarize, 

 and, in some cases, replace previously reported 

 Columbia River hatchery fall chinook salmon con- 

 tribution and value data. 



The marking study discussed in this paper, in- 

 itiated in 1962 by the Columbia Fisheries Pro- 

 gram Office, was designed to estimate the con- 

 tribution of Columbia River hatchery-reared fall 

 chinook salmon to the fisheries. The effort was 

 brought about by the Bureau of the Budget (now 



^Joe H. Rose, and Arthur H. Arp. 1970. Contribution of Co- 

 lumbia River hatcheries to harvest of 1962 brood fall chinook 

 salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha). Unpubl. manuscr., 27 p. 

 U.S. Fish Wildl. Serv., Bur. Commer. Fish., Columbia Fish. 

 Program Off., Portland, Oreg. 



••Arthur H. Arp. Joe H. Rose, and Steven K. Olhausen. 1970. 

 Contribution of Columbia River hatcheries to harvest of 1963 

 brood fall chinook salmon {Oncorhynchus tshawytscha). Unpubl. 

 manuscr., 33 p. Natl. Mar. Fish. Serv., Columbia Fish. Program 

 Off., Portland, Oreg., Econ. Feasibility Rep. 



5Roy J. Wahle, Arthur H. Arp, and Steven K. Olhausen. 1972. 

 Contribution of Columbia River hatcheries to harvest of 1964 

 brood fall chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha). Unpubl. 

 manuscr., 31 p. Natl. Mar. Fish. Serv., Columbia Fish. Program 

 Off., Portland, Oreg., Econ. Feasibility Rep. 



180 



the Office of Management and Budget) which had 

 declared a moratorium on hatchery construction 

 until there was proof that further expansion would 

 be economically justified. 



The experiment was confined to 12 hatcheries 

 and 1 rearing pond that during the marking phase 

 of the study propagated nearly 90% of all fall 

 chinook salmon artificially reared in the Colum- 

 bia River system. Locations of the participating 

 and nonparticipating hatcheries rearing fall 

 chinook salmon during the study period are shown 

 in Figure 1. The marking of four brood years, 1961 

 through 1964, began in 1962 and data collection 

 was completed in 1969. 



This report contains: 1) the experimental de- 

 sign; 2) a description of the field operations; 3) 

 estimation of 10 individual hatchery contribu- 

 tions, values to fisheries, benefit to cost ratios for 

 study facilities, and comparisons between hatch- 

 eries; 4) the contributions, values, and benefit to 

 cost ratios for each brood year marked for all par- 

 ticipating hatcheries combined, with a compari- 

 son of brood years; and 5) the contribution and 

 value to the Pacific Coast fisheries of fall chinook 

 salmon from all Columbia River hatcheries. 



EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN 



The experimental procedures for this study 

 were the same for the four brood years. The design 

 of the study is described by Worlund et al. (1969), 

 and will be reviewed here. In general, 10% of the 

 fall chinook salmon production from the par- 

 ticipating hatcheries was marked by clipping fins 

 and maxillary bones. The commercial and sport 

 fisheries along the Pacific Coast were sampled for 

 these marks. Individual and collective hatchery 

 contributions can be estimated from: 1) proportion 

 offish marked, 2) number of marks actually recov- 

 ered, 3) fractions of the total catches sampled for 

 marks by time and area in each fishery, and 4) 

 information on any bias associated with applica- 

 tion or detection of marks. The execution of this 

 entire study required the cooperation of personnel 

 from the following agencies: the Alaska Depart- 

 ment of Fish and Game, the Fisheries Research 

 Board of Canada (now the Department of Envi- 

 ronment), the Washington Department of 

 Fisheries, the Fish Commission of Oregon and the 

 Oregon Game Commission (now the Oregon De- 

 partment of Fish and Wildlife), the California De- 

 partment of Fish and Game, the Bureau of Com- 

 mercial Fisheries (now the National Marine 



