maturing fish except in waters along the Aleutian 

 Islands east of long. 177°W. 



Inadequate tagging effort and lack of tag recoveries 

 from the central North Pacific Ocean south of lat. 

 50°N obscures the distribution of Asian and North 

 American pink salmon in this area of the ocean where 

 they are known to occur in early spring. The 

 preponderance of recoveries in North America com- 

 pared to recoveries in Asia, despite the greater 

 numerical abundance of Asian stocks, reflects the 

 difference in tagging and recovery efforts of the two 

 groups. 



Northern and western Alaska. — Tagged pink 

 salmon recovered in Norton Sound were from taggings 

 off the Aleutian Islands as were three of the four 

 recoveries made in the Yukon River (Fig. 79). One 

 recovery in the Yukon River came from a release point 

 near long. 137°W and lat. 47°N. 



Recoveries in the Kuskokwim River and Nushagak 

 vicinity (Fig. 80) were primarily from taggings near 

 the Aleutian Islands and in the eastern Bering Sea. 

 The range of Nushagak fish to the northeastern 

 Pacific Ocean was shown by the recovery of a pink 

 salmon that was tagged near long. 154° W and lat. 

 48°N. Pink salmon recovered in the Naknek-Kvichak 

 District (Fig. 80) came from tagging areas similar to 

 those that were recovered in the Nushagak area. 



Recoveries in the Aleutian Islands (Fig. 81) were 

 from taggings near the Aleutian Islands. 



Northeast Pacific coastal areas. — Tag recoveries 

 in coastal areas from the Alaska Peninsula to Puget 

 Sound were all from tagging locations east of long. 

 169°W. Recoveries from the south side of the Alaska 

 Peninsula (Fig. 81) were generally from the western 

 part of the Gulf of Alaska and north of lat. 50° N; 

 those recovered in Kodiak, Cook Inlet, and Prince 

 William Sound were generally from tagging 

 throughout the Gulf of Alaska to well south of lat. 

 50°N (Fig. 82). Pink salmon from the latter group of 

 coastal areas were distributed similarly according to 

 the recoveries although fish returning to Cook Inlet 

 and Prince William Sound indicated a more southern 

 distribution than Kodiak Island fish. 



Pink salmon returning to coastal areas of 

 southeastern Alaska and northern and central British 

 Columbia were distributed in the eastern peu"t of the 



North Pacific Ocean (Figs. 83-85). Little difference 

 was indicated in ocean distribution of tagged pink 

 salmon bound for individual areas. 



Tagged pink salmon returning to southern British 

 Columbia and Puget Sound (Fig. 86) indicated a more 

 restricted ocean distribution than the fish returning to 

 northern British Columbia and southeastern Alaska. 

 Most fish were from tagging along the coastline. 



High-Seas Recoveries in Year Tagged 



Recoveries of maturing pink salmon in the high seas 

 by location of tagging are illustrated in Figures 87 and 

 88. Primarily most recoveries were of fish tagged and 

 released within or close to the area of recovery. The 

 exception was the recoveries in the Okhotsk Sea 

 which came mainly from tagging in the northwestern 

 Pacific Ocean (Fig. 87). Recoveries of tagged pink 

 salmon in the Bering Sea, in addition to being from 

 releases in that area and from releases in waters along 

 the Aleutian Islands, were from widely dispersed tag- 

 ging points in the northeast Pacific and northwest 

 Pacific Ocean (Fig. 87). 



The major number of recoveries in the northwestern 

 Pacific Ocean was from tagging experiments east of 

 Hokkaido Island (Fig. 88). It is interesting that 

 several recoveries were made in the central North 

 Pacific Ocean (areas 28, 31-34) from tagging south of 

 lat. 50°N, although only a single recovery was made 

 inshore from this area. 



Coastal Recoveries Subsequent to 

 Year of Tagging 



Figure 89 illustrates coastal recoveries of pink 

 salmon tagged as juvenile fish in their first summer at 

 sea. Because pink salmon mature in their second year, 

 they are only available for tagging as immatures dur- 

 ing their first summer at sea as age .0 juveniles. The 

 recoveries illustrate the movement of juveniles after 

 they leave the estuaries. Returns to Kodiak Island, 

 and southeastern Alaska, suggest that the juveniles 

 move westward. The returns to British Columbia and 

 Washington indicate juveniles from these areas move 

 northward along the coast. Movements of the 

 juveniles have been described by Hartt, Smith, Dell, 

 and Kilambi 1967; Hartt, Dell, and Smith 1969, 1970; 

 Rothschild et al. 1971; and Sakagawa 1972. 



54 



