Figure 6. — Brailing salmon from a floating trap in Alasl-;a. 



Statistics for the 1951 British Co- 

 himbia commercial catch are 202 

 million pounds landed with a value 

 of 28 million dollars. Sixty percent 

 of the poundage resulted from chum 

 and pink catches. Of the total 

 poundage, 44 percent was taken by 

 seine and 41 percent by gill net. 



The 1951 total of the commercial 

 salmon fishery of the Pacific coast of 

 North America is 577 million 

 pounds with a value of 80 million 

 dollars to the fisheriyien. 



In addition to the commercial 

 fishery, there is a tremendous sport 

 fishery from southeastern Alaska to 

 the Sacramento Kiver. It is almost 

 impossible to estimate the catch and 

 value of this fishery with any degree 

 of accuracy. An attempt has been 

 made to determine the sport catch 

 fi-om the Columbia River. The fig- 



ure arrived at is a catch of 2 million 

 pounds annually. If all of a sport 

 fisherman's expenditures in connec- 

 \ ion with his seeking of salmon were 

 charged against his catch, the flesh 

 would certainly be valued at several 

 dollars a pound. In one of the best 

 studies of its type, Wallace (1952) 

 determined that in Washington 

 State the 400,000 fish-and-game li- 

 cense holders spent 36.7 million dol- 

 lars in 1950 for sport fishing. The 

 license holders who participated in 

 the survey reported an average ex- 

 penditure of $125 per capita for 

 fishing. 



The exceptional nutritive value of 

 salmon flesh is well known. This 

 flesh is quite as valuable as beef and 

 other meat products and even ex- 

 ceeds beef in desirable components 

 such as iodine, phosphorus, and 

 fluorine. 



15 



