Salmon run a gauntlet of drift gill nets in the 

 open waters of the inlet and then are subjected 

 to an intensive set net fishery along the beaches. 

 The catch peaks first in the drift net fishery 

 about July 17, and then about 1 week later, 

 as the salmon approach the shore, the set 

 net catch increases sharply. 



Trap 



num- Coefficient of correlation, r, for traps- 

 bar 12 3 4 



.87 



.83 



.70 



.91 



.76 



The Cook Inlet district is divided into 

 statistical areas, and salmon captured in the 

 commercial fishery are reported by these 

 areas. Area 244 includes two major set net 

 beaches, one on each side of the mouth of the 

 Kenai River, and a drift net area offshore 

 (fig. 1). Area 244 was selected for compari- 

 son with the fyke trap study because this sec- 

 tion of the inlet is most likely to contain 

 Kenai River red salmon. The commercial 

 catch figures reported in this study are total 

 numbers of salmon landed from statistical 

 area 244 during 1 week. 



The fact that the daily catches at the various 

 sites fluctuated in a like manner and were 

 consistent in this pattern, not only intra- 

 seasonally but also from year to year (traps 

 1 and 2), strongly indicated that the catches 

 must be closely associated with numbers of 

 fish in the river. 



In the 1959 studies the trend and daily 

 fluctuations of the catch at two widely sep- 

 arated batteries of traps, when adjusted for 

 travel time lag, were remarkably alike. Traps 

 apparently catch fish in proportion to the 



The timing and duration of the run as shown 

 by the commercial set net catches were re- 

 flected in general by the fyke trap catches. 

 Also, the curve of abundance as measured 

 by the traps has the same general shape as 

 the commercial catch curve, even though the 

 numbers of fish in the river were affected by 

 removals by the fishery (fig. 11). In 1959, in 

 contracts to previous years, gill net fishing was 

 permitted 6 days per week after July 19. 



The fluctuations of the fyke trap catch curve 

 in relation to the commercial catch curve and 

 the timing and duration of the two suggest that 

 the fyke traps sample red salmon in the Kenai 

 River in proportion to the salmon abundance. 

 More detailed marking experiments are needed 

 to determine actual numbers in the escape- 

 ment. 



Comparison of Catches in Fyke 

 Traps in Different Locations 



The numbers of fish caught at each trap 

 location were well correlated. For example, 

 in 1957 the coefficient of correlation between 

 index traps 1 and 2 was r= 0.93. The correla- 

 tions between the four traps which were fished 

 at the index site in 1958 in an array across 

 the river were as follows: 



Figure 11. --Timing and duration of the Kenai River 

 red salmon migration as measured by the commer- 

 cial fishery in statistical area 244 and by f>'ke traps 

 (data smoothed by 3-day intervals). 



14 



