18 SALMON GEAR LIMITATION 



III. BIOSTATISTICAL ANALYSIS 



The salmon net fishery resource of the State of Washington 

 consists of the annual runs of mature salmon that pass through the 

 Strait of Juan de Fuca and Puget Sound on their way from the 

 open ocean feeding grounds to spawning areas along the coasts of 

 Washington and British Columbia. The catches are taken all along 

 the migration routes in Canadian and United States waters. 



The net fishery depends upon four species of salmon. In the 

 order of their importance to the value of the catch these are 

 the sockeye, pink, silver, and chum salmon, respectively. Chinook 

 salmon are not the primary object of the net fishery except in a 

 few very restricted localities. The catch of chinook is properly 

 described as being incidental to the catch of the other four species. 



Timing 



During any given year these four species enter the fishery in a 

 definite chronological order. The sockeye run arrives first in the 

 late spring or early summer and is followed by the pink, silver, and 

 chum runs, in that order. The actual timing of the peaks of the 

 runs may vary as much as several weeks from year to year. A 

 variety of factors may cause these fluctuations of timing. It is clearly 

 recognized that oceanographic conditions and the racial composition 

 of the run are of major importance. For example, the sockeye 

 fishery depends entirely upon fish returning to the Fraser River to 

 spawn. However, the Fraser River spawning run is far from homo- 

 geneous. The run may be composed of a number of distinct stocks 

 or races which are destined for five major lake systems (Shuswap, 

 Quesnel, Stuart, Chilko, and Francois) and a multitude of minor 

 systems within the Fraser system. The individual races have fairly 

 independent migratory schedules. The changing relative abundance 

 of the individual races is considerable and is reflected in the timing 

 of the total run through the fishery. The other three species are 

 affected in a similar manner. Fluctuations in the timing of the other 

 species are even greater than those in the sockeye since they are 

 returning to a greater number of spawning streams distributed over 

 a large geographic area. 



Akhough the exact timing of the runs cannot be forecasted 

 precisely each year, the general timing, chronological order of races, 



