CONFERENCE ON SALMON PROBLEMS 



91 



from the Port-aux-Basques area into the 

 Gulf? 



Dr. Belding. That was the maximum 

 rate in the 1937 tagging experiment. 



Mr. Menzies. If they are carried back 

 they are only carried back by the residual 

 current. If they are carried up so far on 

 the flood tide they will be carried back part 

 of the distance on the ebb. Can they be 

 carried 28 miles a day on one residual ? 



Dr. Huntsman. Only a part of the sal- 

 mon show such a rate. With salmon mov- 

 ing actively and at random great varieties 

 in rate would be expected, and the effect of 

 the current would be shown only in the 

 average rate. 



Mr. Menzies. There is directed swim- 

 ming. You do go so far as to say they swim 

 as well as are carried. They swim in a 

 directed fashion. They may drift in one 

 direction at 10 or 11 miles a day. 



Dr. Belding. The average rate for all 

 recaptured salmon was 12 miles per day. 



Mr. Menzies. They will drift 15 miles a 

 day in one direction. If their swimming is 

 not directed, then you must surely admit 

 they may be going in any direction. 



Dr. Huntsman. For current it is not any 

 direction but a certain direction. There are 

 no facts as to how rapidly they could be 

 carried in the current from Port-aux- 

 Basques inwards. Their active movements 

 may be directed to some extent but of that 

 I have no evidence. They seem to be held 

 in water from the rivers, which involves a 

 certain amount of direction, they move to 

 and fro, but do not leave it. 



Dr. Belding. How do you explain the 

 number of salmon taken in Casco Bay and 

 along the coast of Maine? Greater num- 

 bers appear on the coast than go up the 

 Penobscot, Denis and St. Croix rivers. 

 Where do they belong ? 



Dr. Huntsman. I would have to have 

 that demonstrated first, but some from the 

 Bay of Fundy do go out towards Maine. 



Mr. Menzies. One point Dr. Prefontaine 

 raised regarding the Bay of Fundy, am I 

 not right in saying fish are caught earlier 

 near Cape Splitj earlier than at St. John and 

 later caught out toward the mouth of Digby 



Gut ? In the earlier period is the river level 

 higher than in the later? 



Dr. Huntsman. There is no river — just 

 small brooks. 



Mr. Menzies. That is right away from 

 the actual river estuary. 



Dr. Huntsman. There is a gap between 

 that fishery and the river estuaries. 



Mr. Cowie. The temperature would be 

 higher at the head of the Bay. 



Dr. Huntsman. Yes. The fish are ear- 

 lier owing to the temperature. 



Mr. Menzies. We have no facts on which 

 we can make the wildest assumption as to 

 where the salmon are in the sea. Salmon 

 are caught at sea but there is quite a bit of 

 trouble getting records. Fishery people 

 collect them for us. We also paid three 

 shillings for all these small salmon-like fish 

 caught in herring nets. They were all trout 

 and no sign of a salmon. There are a few 

 cases of salmon being caught 30 or 40 miles 

 off the coast. So far as Scotland is con- 

 cerned we are not going to attempt to find 

 out where they go outside territorial waters. 

 I am safe to say that if we can find out 

 where they feed and the routes they take 

 coming back it might be dangerous to the 

 whole of our fishery. 



Dr. Rich. On the Pacific coast the silver 

 and Chinook salmon are taken all along the 

 coast, within 30 or 40 miles of shore, 

 (chiefly fairly close to shore) and a great 

 many of the fish will not mature in the year 

 in which they are taken. Some seasons of 

 the year more than half are immature. Red 

 or sockeye salmon are not taken during 

 their sea life at all. There are two interest- 

 ing observations in regard to the red salmon 

 that have never been recorded; they are, 

 perhaps not of a nature that should be offi- 

 cially recorded. Dr. W. F. Thompson of 

 the International Fisheries Commission re- 

 ported to me a number of years ago that 

 during his experiments in the halibut work 

 a single red salmon was picked up some- 

 where in the middle of the night out in the 

 middle of the North Pacific, about half-way 

 between Kodiak and the Strait of Juan de 

 Fuca. I have seen the specimen and have 

 examined scales from it, an adult red 



