94 



THE MIGRATION AND CONSERVATION OF SALMON 



the mouth of the river about five miles be- 

 low the hatchery. These fish evidently had 

 not been able to go up the river to the usual 

 spawning places but milled around the small 

 estuary, consequently the eggs were taken 

 from the fish there ; otherwise, as I was told, 

 the eggs would be entirely lost. 



Mr. Menzies. We marked all the fish they 

 caught. Fish spawn there late in the season 

 (November and December). For several 

 years we marked them there. The hatchery 

 is now closed. The fish were actually caught 

 in the river from the top of tide to about five 

 miles upstream. 



Dr. Belding. The Moisie River is quite a 

 large river. At one time a landslide caused 

 a marked increase in the turbidity of the 

 water at the time the salmon were running. 

 All of a sudden in the estuary of the small 

 neighboring Matamek River there appeared 

 an enormous number of salmon. These 

 salmon remained there for a few days and 

 then disappeared as rapidly as they came 



Dr. Huntsman. The point at issue can be 

 settled only by actually knowing the origin 

 of the fish. Some stay in the locality and 

 some go elsewhere. 



Mr. Menzies. You can say that because 

 they go there and we find they belong there. 



Dr. Huntsman. If you want to have it 

 clear-cut, the fish should be marked as smolts 

 and their behavior ascertained when they 

 are taken in the sea, and tagged and liber- 

 ated there. Circumstantial evidence, sus- 

 ceptible to different interpretations, does not 

 seem to me to be satisfactory. 



In this matter of sea behavior ("main mi- 

 gration") and local behavior, it seems to me 

 to be of significance as to whether the salmon 

 can be caught in drift-nets or in shore gear. 

 There appears to be a change in this respect 

 when a spate comes along. For the St. 

 John River salmon show such a difference as 

 between those in the zone of river influence 

 and those just outside the zone. Also the 

 drift-nets when in the outer part of the zone 

 have the fish meshed entering chiefly from 

 the outside, when in the middle of the zone 

 from both sides equally, and when in the 

 inner part of the zone from the inside chiefly. 

 Also, the fishermen at the river mouth state 



that they can catch the salmon when the 

 spate is on, but when it is passing off the fish 

 go past them into the river. 



Behavior of Salmon in the River 



Mr. Menzies. The majority of our rivers 

 run straight out on to the coast. Tide water 

 does not remain in the estuary; when the 

 tidal water runs out there is only river 

 water. The Tay, however, is a very good 

 example of a river with a large estuary. It 

 is our biggest river. The fish pass into the 

 estuary and then they are going up and 

 down with the tide in the estuarial part. 



I have a complete record of the catch of 

 fish in a certain river. The estuary is about 

 eight miles long — the fish go up and down. 

 We have a very complete engineering record 

 of the water flow in the river and the actual 

 number of fish caught each day. In that 

 estuary there is a net fishery at the mouth 

 and one about one-half way up. At the top 

 of the tide there is a set of traps right across 

 the river — fish caught in these traps had 

 definitely left the tidal water. I have been 

 able to correlate the average flow of that 

 river. I have averaged the flow for each of 

 the months of May, June and July, then I 

 have also taken the total number of fish 

 caught in the nets lower do^vn in the estuary 

 and I have worked out the percentage that 

 were caught in each month in the fishing 

 weirs. These last fish were actually on their 

 way upstream. The graphs show (1) the 

 average height of the water and (2) the per- 

 centage caught in the cribs or weirs. The 

 curves in illustration follow one another. 

 The correlation is extraordinary. The cor- 

 relation simply bears out what I have said as 

 to the behavior of the fish. 



Dr. Huntsman. It is the same for the 

 Margaree. 



Mr. Menzies. The correlation to me is per- 

 fectly clear. If you get a spate at the end 

 of June it is carried over into July and may 

 give July a higher water flow than belongs 

 to it. It may be very low from July 7 on- 

 wards. 



Dr. Rich. Did you ever try correlating 

 with the rise of water? 



Mr. Menzies. Yes. That depends upon 



