34 



SALMON GEAR LIMITATION 



FIG. 17. Net earnings'" of (U. S.) Puget Sound net fisheries for 

 "standard" run sizes as a function of the amount of gear 

 fished. 



'■'Net earnings is defined as the gross value of the catch minus all fixed costs and 

 operating costs. Labor costs have not been subtracted from the net earnings figure. 

 Net earnings is the profit that is available for division between labor and capital. 



creasing yield will be divided among fewer units of gear. Reductions 

 below one-half were not considered, since calculations at this gear 

 intensity with large size runs indicate that there may be some diffi- 

 culty in harvesting an extremely large run with half the present gear 

 fishing at present gear efficiency. For example, when the sockeye run 

 was increased to four times the standardized level to give a total run 

 of approximately 17,000,000 fish in convention waters and the gear 

 intensity (the amount of gear) was reduced to one-half of the present 

 level the fishery managed to harvest 77.9 per cent of the run. How- 

 ever, the season was open virtually seven days a week during the 

 entire season and the machine had been instructed, but was unable 

 to harvest 85 per cent of the run. On the other hand, gear restrictions 

 of one-third of the fleet size have caused no difficulty. Reductions of 

 one-third have been investigated for large runs (a total of 35 different 

 conditions have been simulated to date) and have indicated that such 

 runs can be harvested without approaching the exploitation limits of 

 the present gear. The earnings picture for runs at twice the "standard" 

 level is shown in Fig. 18. The effect on earnings of "poor" runs of 

 sockeye and pink salmon is illustrated in Fig. 19. The high fixed 

 costs of purse seines make them particularly susceptible to any re- 

 duction from present levels of production. 



