of December from the Bristol Bay fishery. The 

 Egegik Riverfishery accounted for 281 of these. 



Counts of fish in the trunk streams show 

 that the runs to the four river systems vary 

 in relative size from year to year. Also, it 

 seems likely that the extent of intermixture 

 of the several runs is variable from year to 

 year. Because of these considerations it is not 

 easy to assess the economic worth of any one 

 river by itself. In recent years escapements' 

 have been counted on each of the rivers as an 

 aid in determining the relative production of 

 each. On the basis of these observations, about 

 three-fourths of the fish in the Kvichak- 

 Naknek catch are estimated to have been of 

 Kvichak River origin. At current prices the 

 average Kvichak-Naknek catch of the past 50 

 years would represent a $7.5 million annual 

 income to fishermen. 



When Kvichak River runs declined rapidly 

 after the high production of the late 1930's 

 (fig. 2), several Kvichak-Naknek salmon pack- 

 ers drafted a proposal to the U.S. Fish and 

 Wildlife Service (FWS) in November 1954 

 expressing a need for a system of observations 

 and research in the Kvichak River area similar 

 to the work then being done on red salmon 

 runs in the Wood River of the Nushagak River 

 system. The Wood River work was done by FRI 

 with funds provided by the Alaska Salmon 

 Industry. Consequently, the contract, "Ob- 

 servations on Red Salmon in the Kvichak 



Figure 2.--Kvichak-Naknek red salmon catch, 1893- 

 1959. Source: "Tabulated Information on the Red 

 Salmon Runs in the Kvichak-Naknek restrict," Fish- 

 eries Research Institute unpublished manuscript, 

 1954 (revised 1956). 



System," was entered into May 1, 1955, 

 between the FWS and FRI. Field work started 

 in May 1955, 



The Kvichak program was to assemble facts 

 useful for rehabilitating Kvichak River red 

 salmon runs. The cause of the persistent 

 decline in abundance was not known, but pre- 

 liminary results from Wood River investiga- 

 tions indicated that basic physical and 

 biological problems should be studied. 

 Physical-biological investigations would en- 

 compass such matters as how freezing affects 

 inadequately protected eggs in the gravel in 

 winter and how low stream levels with attendant 

 high water temperatures and intolerable lov/ 

 levels of dissolved oxygen in summer affect 

 young salmon. Biological investigations would 

 include studies of food supplies, spatial limita- 

 tions, and predation by other species. From 

 earlier investigations, it was apparent that 

 population densities on the spawning grounds 

 would have to be studied to provide information 

 on optimum escapements. Finally, the intense 

 fishery in Bristol Bay and the complicating 

 effects of its selective gill net fishery would 

 have to be understood. 



Whatever the elements contributing to the de- 

 cline in the runs, rehabilitation might be 

 greatly simplified if groups of salmon bound 

 for a well-defined spawning area, e.g., a 

 tributary stream, a definite lake shore beach, 

 or a connected unit of spring ponds, became 

 segregated and thus recognizable in the fishery. 

 If segregated, these spawning groups could 

 be subjected to different levels of fishing 

 pressure, and if desired, optimum levels of 

 abundance for specified groups might be de- 

 termined. 



Spawning groups might be segregated in time 

 or in space. ^ 



"Escapement" is defined as that part of the run 

 that escapes or evades the fishery and ascends the trunk 

 stream. 



Some groups might also be recognizable by morpho- 

 metric, morphological, serological, or other means, but 

 these would not necessarily be segregated. Recognition 

 of groups cannot be of value here unless different levels 

 of fishing pressure cin be brought to bear on them. 

 Theoretically, there would still be a chanceofselective 

 action in the fishery if fish differed in size distribution 

 from one group to the next. In that case, varying the 

 sizes of meshes used in the commercial gill net fishery 

 would vary the proportion from different groups in the 

 catch. Evidence indicates that such differences in size 

 are negligible. 



