fry. The lower basin is to act jls a control. 

 To facilitate work on this expanded program, 

 an addition to the existing laboratory was 

 constructed this season. 



Chignifc 



The Chignik area supports two types 

 of salmon fisheries. Greatest interest is 

 in the red salmon run into Chignik River 

 itself. Though the fishery at one time 

 produced catches in excess of one million 

 fish annually, it has reached half that 

 figure only once in the last decade (figure 

 23). Fishing is conducted in the lagoon at 

 the mouth of the river by a concentration 

 of beach seines. Traps that were formerly 

 installed in the immediate vicinity have 

 not been used for several years. 



Pink and chum salmon-producing bays 

 of the general type found along the Pacific 

 Ocean coast form the basis for the remainder 

 of the salmon fishery in the Chignik area. 

 Like the Eid joining fishery of the South 



-PERCENT ESCAPEMENT 

 -TOTAL RUN 



Figure 24. — Relation of Chignik red salmon 

 escapement to total run, 1958. 



Peninsula, which they resemble, the Chignik 

 chum and pink salmon fisheries are in a 

 reduced state. 



--ESCAPEMENT 

 "—TOTAL CATCH 



192S 30 



♦0 45 



Figure 23. --Chignik red salmon catch and 

 escapenient. 



attempting to attain representative escape- 

 ments from each portion of the run. This 

 is accomplished through the use of a large 

 counting weir just upstream from tidal 

 influence. During the first half of the 

 fishery the escapement was somewhat less 

 than the catch, but during the last half it 

 was greater (figure 24). The lower percent- 

 age of escapements in the forepart of the 

 season is believed to be due to the large 

 number of boats that fished in the lagoon 

 early in the season coincident with low 

 tides during fishing hours. This restricted 

 the fish to the river channels, making them 

 more susceptible to capture. Two extra days 

 of closure just before the peak of the run 

 brought the escapement to within a few 

 thousand of the catch to that date. This 

 closure caused most of the boats and gear 

 to seek fish outside of the lagoon, and 

 many of them did not return. Thereafter, 

 escapement exceeded catch until fishing 

 ended on August 20. 



With few exceptions escapement to the 

 pink and chum streams in the Chignik area 

 was very poor. The Aniakchak River, Hook 

 Bay, and the Chignik River tributaries were 

 the only exceptions, and even in these 

 escapement was only fair. 



The Chignik red salmon run for 1958 

 was below that of the past three yccirs but 

 was nearly as good as the parent cycle year 

 of 1953. The escapement was 325,000 fish 

 and the commercial catch 321,000. Fishery 

 management of the Chignik red salmon fol- 

 lowed the same principle used in 1957 in 



Alaska Peninsula 



In the waters off the western extrem- 

 ity of the Alaska mainland, which separates 

 the Pacific Ocean from the Bering Sea, 

 there are several salmon fisheries of vary- 

 ing chaLracteristics. On the south side of 



17 



