The outlet stream at Dakavak Lake is now 

 subterranean; it flows or seeps through a 

 60- to lOO-m. pumice and volcanic ash dike 

 across the outlet end of the lake. The origin of 

 the dike is unknown, although it likely devel- 

 oped, at least in part, from the extremely- 

 heavy ash deposits that followed the 1912 

 volcanic activity in the Dakavak Lake area. 

 Possibly ash and rock slides in the narrow 

 outlet arm of the lake, combined with large 

 volumes of floating pumice on the lake sur- 

 face, formed the dike. During its formation, 

 and possibly later, surface water flowed over 

 the top of the dike, as evidenced by high-water 

 beach lines on the dike and margins of the 

 lake. The top of the dike, about 25 feet above 

 the current lake level, coincides with the top 

 of a denuded high-water zone around the lake 

 margin (Cahalane's [1959] frontispiece, photo- 

 graphed at Dakavak Lake on July 28, 1953, 

 clearly shows this denuded zone.) Undoubtedly 

 this dike has prevented anadromous fishes 

 from going into the lake for several years. 

 Nineteen sockeye salmon collected from the 

 lake on June 30 and July 1, 1962, were 61 to 

 160 mm. long and averaged 125 mm. The 

 larger of these (over 140 mm.) were in their 

 fourth year of life and had maturing gonads. 

 We believe these fish would have spawned in 

 the fall. This population may have become 

 landlocked during the eruption of 1912. 



Anadromous sockeye salmon are probably 

 excluded from the lake above Devils Cove in 

 Kukak Bay by a 5- to 6-m. waterfall on the 

 outlet stream. We caught 26 possible kokanee 

 salmon, 28 to 139 mm. (average 105 mm.), by 

 setting a gill net overnight and by beach sein- 

 ing in this lake on July 1, 1962. One fish, 

 136 mm, long, was in its fifth year of life; 

 seven others, over 118 mm. long, were in 

 their fourth year. These older fish had matur- 

 ing gonads and probably would have spawned 

 in the fall. 



Perhaps the most unusual account of sockeye 

 salmon in Katnnai National Monument, one 

 where this salmon apparently did not follow 

 the usual pattern of using a lake for a juvenile 

 rearing area, was given by Griggs (1922, 

 p. l6l). He quoted C. H. Gilbert who suggested 

 that 5-year-old adult anadromous sockeye 

 salmon collected in 1917 from a small un- 

 named tributary of the Katmai River had spent 

 2 years in fresh water, possibly in the tribu- 

 tary or in Katmai River itself in the years 

 immediately after the 1912 eruption. We had 

 hoped to recheck this stream to learn if sock- 

 eye salmon were still there but were unable 

 to determine the stream's exact location. 



Another group of anadromous sockeye salmon 

 that does not have a lake nursery area occurs 

 in the Swikshak River system. These fish 

 spawn in a small stream that runs somewhat 

 parallel with, and to the east of, Swikshak 

 River and enters the river about 1.6 km. above 

 its mouth. In its upper portion this stream is 



precipitous, but most of the lower portion is 

 sluggish and forms a lagoon just before it 

 joins the Swikshak River. Both portions are 

 about 4 km. long. Sockeye salnnon spawn in 

 an area about 0.8 km. long between the two 

 sections where the gradient first increases 

 sufficiently to provide a silt-free gravel sub- 

 strate. ■'■■'■ Upstream, this gradient becomes too 

 steep for a stable stream bottom. Anestimated 

 2,700 sockeye salmon spawned in this stream 

 on August 20, 1959.^^ 



Chinook salmon, Oncorhynchus tshawytscha 

 (Walbaum) .-- Chinook salmon were collected in 

 the Naknek and King Salmon River systems. 

 They occurred only in snnall numbers within 

 the monument portion of the Naknek system. 

 Adults were observed in Brooks River and in 

 Headwater, Bay of Islands, and Annerican 

 Creeks between I960 and 1964. Since 1940 

 an average of 15 adults per year have passed 

 through Brooks River weir into Brooks Lake. 

 The only juveniles observed within the monu- 

 ment portion of the Naknek system were seined 

 from Hidden Creek Bay in Brooks Lake in 

 196l. Large numbers of chinook salmon occur 

 outside the boundary of the monument in the 

 lower portion of the Naknek system. Records 

 from a weir on the Naknek River at the head 

 of tidewater indicate that about 5,000 adult 

 chinook salmon passed through the weir annu- 

 ally from 1953 to 1957; most of these spawned 

 in Naknek River below the outlet of Naknek 

 Lake. Substantial runs of chinook salmon 

 spawn in Big Creek and King Salmon Creeks 

 downstreann from the Naknek River weir 

 site.-""^ We did not observe adult chinook 

 salmon in the King Salmon River system 

 within the monument, but we collected juve- 

 niles (34-51 mm.) from a small slough along 

 Takayoto Creek in August 1964. 



Pygmy whitefish, Prosopium coulterii 

 (Eigenmann and Eigenmann) . --Pygmy white- 

 fish were collected only in the Naknek system. 

 These small whitefish were collected from 

 Iliuk Arm, South Bay, North Arm, and Bay of 

 Islands in Naknek Lake; throughout Grosvenor 

 and Brooks Lakes; from the eastern end of 

 Coville Lake; and from near the outlet in 

 Hammersly Lake. They were particularly 

 abundant in Brooks Lake and South Bay of 

 Naknek Lake, The fish were collected in 

 shallow areas and in the deepest known fresh- 

 water area in the monument (171 m., Iliuk 

 Arm). Large numbers of pygmy whitefish 



Personal communication, W. H. Noerenberg, Deputy 

 Commissioner for Commercial Fisheries, Alaska Depart- 

 ment of Fish and Game, January 24, 1966. 



12 Noerenberg, Wallace H. 1959. Stream surveys in the 

 Kodiak area, 1959. Univ. Wash., Seattle, Fish. Res. Inst., 

 Circ. Ill, 40 pp. 



■'"■'King Salmon Creek, a tributary of Naknek River west 

 of King Salmon, should not be confused with the King 

 Salmon River drainage. 



