CONFERENCE ON SALMON PROBLEMS 



101 



Mr. Menzies. Undoubtedly so. It must 

 be so. Every day when the water is suit- 

 able there will be fish going up. 



Dr. Huntsman. It seems as if in your 

 rivers it merely determines how active the 

 salmon are. 



Mr. Menzies. Large numbers will go in 

 at the lower end of the scale and large num- 

 bers at 60. 



Dr. Huntsman. If the temperature goes 

 down to 30° or 31° they stop entirely. This 

 seems to make a difference between the 

 rivers of the Bay of Pundy and those of the 

 Gulf of St. Lawrence. It is definitely a 

 factor in the stopping of movement. 



Mr. Menzies. When the temperature is 

 below 40° F. they will not go beyond 15 to 

 20 miles above tide. Forty to 45° is a criti- 

 cal temperature; below 40° they will not 

 attempt to ascend obstructions. At 42° 

 they wiU pass the obstructions freely. 



Dr. Huntsman. We have differences be- 

 tween the two branches of the Margaree 

 River with regard to the running. The 

 southwest is from a lake, the northeast 

 from high land and ravines in which the 

 snow remains late. The local experience is 

 that in the very early part of the season the 

 salmon will go up the southwest when the 

 ice water is coming down the northeast and 

 only afterwards will they go up the north- 

 east. This occurs only in exceptional sea- 

 sons. 



Mr. Menzies. Fish were going up the 

 Dee when the water was coming nearly all 

 from snow, we found the farther we got up, 

 the higher the temperature of the water. 

 There was snow but sun shining on the 

 rocks heated it up. There was wide tem- 

 perature fluctuation and temperatures 

 apparently rose farther down the river. 



SEXUAL MATURITY 



Dr. Huntsman. Is there special behavior 

 of the salmon when beginning to mature 

 sexually or when approaching maturity? 

 Do fish entirely mature behave like those 

 that will not spawn for a year, and do these 

 fish behave differently in movement from 

 spawned fish ? 



Mr. Menzies. The early fish go farthest. 



The autumn fish spawn at the bottom of the 

 river, the early fish going farther. You get 

 your grilse and summer spawning fish in 

 the middle of the area and the autumn fish 

 in the beginning. Fish coming in last 

 utterly fail to go up. In the Tweed, the 

 late fish go very much farther than late 

 fish elsewhere. Plenty of early fish there. 



Dr. Huntsman. In Mr. White's experi- 

 ments in the Apple River near spawning 

 time fish entered the south branch to which 

 they did not belong. They did not do this 

 earlier. They showed a different behavior 

 when very near the spawning period. 



Mr. Menzies. Except in the River Tweed 

 they function in quite a standard way. If 

 they have gone 15 or 20 miles and a lot of 

 them rest in a pool the spring fish coming 

 in after them will pass them and go farther. 

 Then about the beginning of May or June, 

 with water temperature 48° to 55°, the 

 whole lot will go and they will stay in the 

 Oiie place farther upstream all summer. 

 Then in the autumn they will move on. 



Dr. Huntsman. There is the point too 

 that the fish coming up well before spawn- 

 ing time keep to deep pools and apparently 

 do not run up any of the small tributaries 

 and then at spawning time they are nearly 

 everywhere they can get. They seem to 

 behave differently at spawning time. 



Mr. Menzies. The early fish go into the 

 quiet water, deep pools, and as the water 

 temperature rises they will move out from 

 that into stronger water. When it gets to 

 60° to 65° they will move out to the rapid 

 water. 



Dr. Huntsman. Similar to having a day 

 position in the pool and moving up to rapid 

 water in the evening ? 



Mr. Menzies. Our salmon do not do that. 



Dr. Huntsman. It is fairly general here. 



Mr. Menzies. Once the temperature is up 

 they will be in the strongest water. 



LIGHT 



Dr. Huntsman. Are they more active in 

 the evening? 



Mr. Menzies. They merely become active 

 where they are. In the summer time when 

 the water is in condition, the salmon mi- 



