they would have spawned; only males were 

 sampled. Salmon milling at the mouth of a 

 creek (called "prespawning-") were taken 

 August 9, about 2 weeks before the start of 

 movement into fresh water, from a bay at the 

 mouth of a stream at Little Port Walter on 

 the southern end of Baranof Island, south- 

 eastern Alaska; equal numbers of males and 

 females were sampled. Salmon spawning in 

 the stream (termed "spawning") were taken 

 from Olsen Creek, which empties into Olsen 

 Bay on Port Gravina, Prince William Sound. 

 They were taken on July 19 (males only) and 

 September 2 (males and females). The Olsen 

 Creek fish, which made up more than half of 

 all the pink salmon sampled, were sampled on 

 two dates because they arrive in two distinct 

 runs. The early run typically la.sts from mid- 

 July to mid-August and the late one from late 

 August to middle or late September. These 

 populations may be genetically distinct. 



One sample of blood was taken from each 

 specimen while the fish was held on its back, 

 in a wooden trough. A no. I8-1/2 needle on a 

 syringe was inserted into the dorsal aorta 

 above the roof of the pharynx, in the region 

 of the second gill arch, and 12 ml. of blood 

 were withdrawn. About 0.2 g. (a pinch) of 

 potassium oxalate, an anticoagulant chosen be- 

 cause it is dry and hence does not cause dilu- 

 tion, was placed in the syringe before the 



sample was taken. The blood was transferred 

 to a capped vial that also contained a pinch 

 of the oxalate and was placed in an iced, insu- 

 lated chest and transported by plane to the 

 Bureau of Commercial Fisheries Biological 

 Laboratory at Auke Bay. About 24 hours 

 elapsed between collection and analysis of 

 blood. 



HEMATOLOGY 



Certain hematological characteristics were 

 determined. Specific gravity was measured by 

 standard methods ; packed cell volume was 

 estimated after the samples were centrifuged 

 in Wintrobe tubes at 2,700 r.p.m. for 15 min- 

 utes ; erythrocytes were counted by standard 

 techniques (Wintrobe, 1933) with 0.85 per- 

 cent saline as a diluent ; and hemoglobin was 

 determined with Hycel' cyanomethemoglobin 

 reagents. Mean corpuscular volume, mean 

 corpuscular hemoglobin, and mean corpuscular 

 hemoglobin concentration were calculated by 

 the formulas of Wintrobe (1933). A current 

 general reference for work of this type is that 

 of Hesser (1960). 



The results of the analyses (table 1) are 

 discu.ssed in comparison with the results of 

 other workers. Because most of the charac- 

 teristics did not vary among the three stages 



"^ Trade name referred to in Iliis pnbliration Hoe.s not imply 

 endorsement of t-omtnercial product. 



Table 1. — Certain hemalohqical characteristics of adult pink salmon in three stages of maturity from three areas of Alaska in 106.1 



(Numbers in parentheses are numl>ers of samples analyzed] 



1 virv- ^'Q*""^*^ of red hlood cells in 1.000 ml. hlood 

 ~ Red V)lood cell count in mill ion /mm. ' 

 Hemogl obin in grams per 1.000 m l. blood 

 ~ Red blood cell count in million/mm.' 



>MCHC: 



ITcmoglobin in grams percent X 100 



Packed cell volume 

 * Female pink salmon from Olsen Hay not inrluded. 



196 



U.S. FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



