SOCKEYE SALMON 



Figures 5-32 



Sockeye salmon are found in Asia, principally in 

 river systems of the Kamchatka Peninsula, and in 

 North America in river systems from northern and 

 western Alaska, south-eastward to the Columbia 

 River in the State of Washington (Margolis et al. 

 1966). It is generally recognized that the total abun- 

 dance of North American sockeye salmon is greater 

 than that of Asian sockeye salmon (Kasahara 1961). It 

 might be expected, therefore, that in tagging experi- 

 ments made throughout the North Pacific Ocean and 

 Bering Sea where sockeye salmon occur, most of the 

 recoveries would be from North American streams. 



Total coastal recoveries of sockeye salmon (Fig. 6) 

 show that most of the releases were made in areas 

 along the Aleutian Islands and in the northeastern 

 Pacific Ocean. The recoveries reflect the main tagging 

 effort which was concentrated along the Aleutian 

 Islands by the United States (mainly work done by 

 the Fisheries Research Institute, University of 

 Washington) and in the northeastern Pacific by the 

 United States and Canada (Fig. 5). The recoveries 

 also illustrate rather well the distribution of sockeye 

 salmon at sea. From south to north the tag returns 

 show that sockeye salmon were distributed from near 

 lat. 46°N in the North Pacific to near lat. 59°N in the 

 Bering Sea. The east-west distribution extends from 

 the North American coast to the Kamchatka Penin- 

 sula in the North Pacific; in the Bering Sea, recoveries 

 were primarily from tagging areas in the southeastern 

 part of the Bering Sea. 



Coastal Recoveries in Year Tagged 



Asian stocks (Figs. 7, 8).— The distribution of 

 maturing sockeye salmon from Asian streams (Fig. 7) 

 as reflected by the release locations and coastal 

 recoveries is confined to waters west of long. 179° W in 

 the northwestern Pacific Ocean. Southern limits of 

 distribution were near lat. 46°N. 



West and East Kamchatka. — The distribution of 

 sockeye salmon returning to Kamchatka is illustrated 

 in Figure 8. Stocks from the east and west coasts of 

 Kamchatka (including three recoveries made in the 

 area from the Okhotsk Sea coast and Shelekhova Bay) 

 were from similar tagging areas of the ocean. This, as 

 explained above for all Asian stocks, was the 

 northwestern Pacific Ocean mainly west of long. 

 175°E. Included with the tagging locations of the east 

 Kamchatka stocks are locations of four fish that were 

 recovered along the Bering Sea coast from the 

 Karaginskii District to the Anadyr River, which show- 

 ed a similar distribution to the Kamchatkan stocks. 



North American stocks (Figs. 9-20).— North 

 American sockeye salmon stocks, on the basis of 



coastal tag recoveries, were widespread in the North 

 Pacific (Fig. 9). Coastal recoveries came from tagging 

 areas near lat. 46°N in the northeastern Pacific, as far 

 west as the vicinity of long. 166°E in the northwestern 

 Pacific and from near lat. 58°N in the central Bering 

 Sea. The largest number of recoveries came from tagg- 

 ing areas off the Aleutian Islands and in the 

 northeastern Pacific Ocean. 



Western Alaska. — Recoveries in western Alaska 

 are illustrated according to various salmon producing 

 systems. The few Norton Sound and Kuskokwim River 

 sockeye salmon recoveries generally came from tag- 

 ging off the Aleutian Islands (Fig. 10). One fish came 

 from the Gulf of Alaska. The distributions of tagged 

 fish that were recovered in the important and major 

 spawning systems of Bristol Bay (Togiak, Nushagak, 

 Naknek-Kvichak, Egegik, and Ugashik rivers) are 

 shown in Figures 10-14. In general each river system 

 shows the same oceanic distribution with most 

 recoveries coming from tagging areas along the Aleu- 

 tian Islands and the northeastern Pacific Ocean. The 

 westernmost tagged fish that was recovered in western 

 Alaska was recovered in the Egegik area; this fish was 

 tagged at long. 166°51'E-lat. 50°47'N. The eastern- 

 most tagged fish recovered in western Alaska were 

 from the Nushagak area; these were tagged near long. 

 140°W. 



Central Alaska. — Recoveries on the south side of 

 the Alaska Peninsula east of long. 159°W, which in- 

 cludes the Chignik area (Fig. 15), came mainly from 

 tagging in the Gulf of Alaska. 



Kodiak Island recoveries (Fig. 15) came from a 

 slightly broader area of the Gulf of Alaska and 

 northeastern Pacific Ocean than those from the south 

 side of the Alaska Peninsula. The southernmost tag- 

 ging point producing a recovery in Kodiak Island was 

 at lat. 46°N (at long. 159°30'W). Two recoveries on 

 Kodiak Island were tagged as far west as the waters off 

 the central Aleutian Islands, near long. 176°W. 



Cook Inlet recoveries (Fig. 16) were from tagging 

 primarily in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and Gulf 

 of Alaska north of lat. 50°N and east of long. 156°W. 

 Four recoveries were from tagging south of the eastern 

 Aleutian Islands and Alaska Peninsula. Tag 

 recoveries in Prince William Sound came primarily 

 from releases in the Gulf of Alaska (Fig. 16). These 

 fish showed a more restricted distribution at time of 

 tagging compared to other central Alaskan stocks. 

 The majority of returns were from releases north of 

 lat. 55°N. One recovery did come from as far south as 

 lat. 49°N (at long. 140° W). Recoveries in Copper and 

 Bering rivers showed a slightly broader ocean dis- 

 tribution than the Prince William Sound fish (Fig. 

 16), but most also came from releases north of lat. 

 55°N. These fish were also distributed mainly in the 

 northern Gulf of Alaska compared to Cook Inlet and 

 Kodiak Island stocks which were distributed farther 

 to the south. 



