At the time the treaty was signed, almost no information 

 was available on distribution of Asian or North American 

 salmon on the high seas. It is true that the Japanese in the 

 1930*s had vmdertaken a detailed survey of the Bering Sea 

 west of 180°, but the main purpose of their survey was to 

 determine where Scdmon were most abundant for purposes 

 of establishing a commercial fishery, and no attention was 

 given to whether the fish taken were of Asian or North 

 American origin. The limited research of the United States 

 in 1937 and 1938 in eastern Bering Sea indicated that salmon 

 were probably confined to the continental shelf. 



After entry into force of the Treaty on June 12, 1953, the 

 Commission was organized in February of 1954 and its pro- 

 gram of research was approved in the fall of that same year. 

 The first explorations to determine distribution of salmon 

 were made in the spring of 1955 when the U. S. Fish and 

 Wildlife Service vessel John N. Cobb was sent out along the 

 west coast of North America, across the Gulf of Alaska, and 

 along the Alaskan Peninsula. Wherever the Cobb set its nets, 

 salmon were taken. 



Based upon this information, two halibut schooners were 

 chartered in July 1955 to investigate the critical waters 

 between 175° E. and 165° W, lying on both sides of the pro- 

 visional line. Again, they took salmon all along the Aleutian 

 Islands north of about 48° N, But when the boats passed into 

 more southern waters, salmon disappeared from their 

 catches and instead, quantities of edbacore were taken. It 

 was now obvious that two separate environments had been 

 found. This was most important to us because it meant that 

 we had found the southern range of salmon distribution (fig. 2), 



170» 180 



40° I30» 



Figure 2.- -North Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea showing area inhabited by 

 salmon in May - June. 



19 



