parent in the discussion below, the recorded catch for 

 each district was composed of stocks destined for the 

 river systems of several fishing districts. The con- 

 tribution of each stock to the commercial catch of a 

 fishing district will vary from year to year depending 

 on the relative size of the individual runs. Assignment 

 of portions of the catch in each fishing district to in- 

 dividual river systems was not done in 1955 and 1956, 

 but it was done in 1957 and 1959. These appor- 

 tionments were based on the age composition of the 

 spawning escapement of each river system. The age 

 composition of the escapement, however, has been 

 modified to a certain extent because of the selective 



action of the gill nets (see page 7). The mixing of 

 stocks within fishing districts, however, was not con- 

 sidered serious enough to prevent use of the size of the 

 total run in interpreting the distribution of tagged fish 

 for the 4 yr of study. In most years large escapements 

 to individual rivers occurred when large catches were 

 made within the fishing district (Table 3). 



Distribution of Sockeye Salmon Stocks Oc- 

 curring on the East and West Side of Inner Bristol 

 Bay. — The distribution of tags recovered in the com- 

 mercial fishery and observed in the spawning escape- 

 ment (Figs. 13-17) showed that sockeye salmon stocks 



9 TAGGING SITES 



BOUNDARIES OF DISTRICT 



OPEN TO FISHING 



WM FISHING DISTRICT TAG RECOVERIES 

 P?^ ESCAPEMENT TAG OBSERVATIONS 



159° 



158° 



RECOVERY AREA 



Figure 17.— Distribution of tags recovered in catch (commercial fishery) and observed in the escapements 

 from sockeye salmon released at four tagging sites in Nushagak fishing district (inshore area) in 1959. 



17 



