regarding centers of population and distribution are 

 dependent upon further analysis of tagging effort. In- 

 formation on tagging effort is shown for those salmon 

 species (sockeye, chum, pink, and coho) for which it 

 was available. These tagging effort data are not 

 directly applicable to the tag recovery information, 

 however, since the available effort data cover a longer 

 series of years (1956-71) than do the recoveries (1956- 

 69). They do serve to illustrate the numbers tagged in 

 relation to the number of recoveries from various 

 areas. The numbers tagged in 1970-71 were a small 

 proportion of the total numbers tagged from 1956 to 

 1969. 



For many of the minor stocks the recoveries of 

 tagged fish simply reveal their occurrence at certain 

 locations in offshore waters. Because salmon tagging 

 experiments were primarily performed in spring and 

 summer months, conclusions inferred about their dis- 

 tribution apply to those periods. 



The recovery area designations defined by Cana- 

 dian scientists (Aro et al. 1971a, see footnote 3) are 

 retained in this atlas. To reduce the number of figures 

 to practical levels, certain recovery areas were 

 grouped into a single area. The original tag recovery 

 areas are listed in Table 1 and shown in Figures 1-4. 

 Numbers of recoveries are summarized in Table 2. 



For each species, those fish recovered in coastal 

 areas in the same year in which they were tagged are 

 presented first. These recoveries in Asia and North 

 America were sexually maturing at the time and place 

 of tagging; the tagging locations provide information 

 on distribution and migration of the fish during their 

 final spring and summer at sea. 



Tagging returns presented second for each species 

 are those made on the high seas in year of tagging. 

 The maturity of sockeye, 0. nerka; chum, 0. keta; 

 and chinook, 0. tshawytscha, salmon recovered at sea 

 is generally known except in instances where weight or 

 stage of gonad development was not recorded. The 

 fish of unknown maturity may, therefore, be destined 



to remain at sea another year or more or they may be 

 on their inshore migration to spawn. Pink, 0. gor- 

 buscha, and coho, 0. kisutch, salmon are generally all 

 mature at capture since immature forms are too small 

 to be taken in commercial fishing gear used on the 

 high seas. High-seas recoveries come from the 

 Japanese mothership and land-based salmon fisheries 

 which operate in the North Pacific Ocean and Bering 

 Sea west of long. 175°W; the mothership fleet also 

 operated in the Okhotsk Sea prior to 1959, which ac- 

 counts for the few recoveries there. The distribution of 

 tag returns, therefore, is largely dependent upon the 

 time-space distribution of the mothership fleet. The 

 Japanese offshore fishing area has been divided into 

 five tag recovery areas (Fig. 2), the Sea of Japan, 

 Okhotsk Sea, Bering Sea, the western Pacific Ocean 

 west of long. 165°E, and the North Pacific Ocean 

 south of the central and western Aleutian Islands 

 between long. 175°W and 165°E. 



The third series of charts for each species shows the 

 tag recoveries subsequent to year of tagging which 

 represent fish that were immature when tagged. Sur- 

 vival of the smaller immature fish is less than that for 

 maturing fish and hence recoveries are much fewer. 

 The oceanic distribution of immatures is therefore not 

 as well illustrated by tagging as that for maturing 

 salmon. Tagging of immatures took place mainly in 

 the summer although some were tagged in the spring. 

 The location of fish at time of tagging, therefore, 

 mainly represents waters they inhabit during the 

 summer. 



Finally, for species in which data are available, we 

 have shown the high-seas recoveries in years subse- 

 quent to tagging. These fish were, of course, immature 

 at tagging and may or may not have been mature at 

 recovery. 



In the sections which follow we show tag recoveries 

 by species and by geographical area of recovery. A key 

 to the species is provided on the margin to facilitate 

 locating charts for a particular species. 



