Table 1 shows the numbers of pink and red 

 salmon tagged each year in the outer and inner 

 sections of the West Coast Management District. 

 The dates of tagging are also given. In addition 

 to the pink and red salmon listed in the table, 

 taggings in 1958 included 492 chum (O. keta ), 574 

 coho (O. kisutch) , 9 king salmon (O. tshawytscha ) , 

 and 4 steelhead trout ( Salmo gairdneri gairdneri) . 



Preliminary results from returns 



Table 1 shows gross returns from tagging 

 of both years for each of the following four com- 

 ponents: American fishery, American spawning 

 grounds, Canadian fishery, and Canadian spawn- 

 ing grounds. It should be noted that, in total, the 

 proportion of both pink and red salmon tags re- 

 turned was about equal for the two years. Some 

 components of these returns, however, exhibit 

 very great differences between the years. During 

 the 1958 season, American fishery returns came 

 principally from inside waters, while in 1957 a 



large proportion of the tagged salmon came from 

 the immediate vicinity of the tagging locations at 

 Noyes Island. Despite the dispersion of the A- 

 merican fleet from the immediate tagging areain 

 1958, the percentage recovery of tagged fish in- 

 creased over 1957. The percentage of recovery 

 on American spawning grounds was almost the 

 same for the two years for pink salmon, but for 

 red salmon it was slightly greater in 1958. Of 

 major interest was the large decrease in 1958 of 

 the percentage recovery of both species from the 

 Canadian fishery. Spawning ground recoveries 

 of tagged pink salmon in Canada were almost nil 

 in 1958 (3 compared to 88 in 1957) but substan- 

 tially more tagged red salmon were observed at 

 the Babine River fence weir than in 1957 (95 com- 

 pared to 10 in 1957). The Babine Lake system 

 is the major red salmon producer of the Skeena 

 River in Canada. 



Factors to be considered in the analysis of 

 the returns are the differences in the patterns of 



Table 1. Summary of results from pink and red salmon experiments on the 

 west coast of Prince of Wales Island — 1957 and 1958 



Tagging 

 location 



Percentage returned from: 



American American Canadian Canadian 



Dates Num- Num- 



of Year ber ber fishery spawning f i8he ry spawning 



tagging tagged returned grounds grounds 



Total 



PINK SALMON 



Outer section 7/16-8/25 1957 11,478 



7/ 9-8/24 1958 4,925 



Inner section 8/17-9/ 2 1957 5,057 



7/22-8/25 1958 3,885 



Total 



1957 16,535 



1958 8,810 



7,082 

 3,672 



26.0 

 33.7 



5.9 

 6.0 



10.5 

 2.0 



0.5 

 0.02 



42.8 

 41.7 



RED SALMON 



Outer section 7/25-8/11 1957 499 



7/ 9-8/24 1958 1,483 



Inner section* 7/22-8/25 1958 



715 



225 



29.5 



1.7 



0.0 



0.3 



31.5 



Total 



1957 499 



1958 2,198 



♦No rod salmon were tagged in this section in 1957 

 10 



