Table 3» Average catch per haul made by purse seine between Cape Seniavin 



and Cape Newenham during 1939 



While the catches made were small in comparison with the usual catches 

 of commercial operations it must be remembered that all of the hauls v/ere 

 made "blind", i.e. the net was set out regardless of wind or tide or the ap- 

 parent presence of fish. In commercial fishing the fishermen almost invari- 

 ably "set" around a previously observed school of fisho At no time during 

 the season's purse seining was a fish seen prior to setting out the gear. 

 Salmon seldom jupra when in offshore waters and there is no means of deter- 

 mining whether or not fish are present prior to setting the gear for them. 



In table k are presented the data on the catch of salmon in the gill 

 net and lead. While the lead was intended primarily to direct the fish into 

 the purse seine or gill net, it was found that it acted almost as efficiently 

 in gilling the fish as did the gill net. Owing to stormy weather, it was 

 not alvraj'-s possible to keep the catches made by the lead separate from those 

 made by the gill net, consequently the data have been combined. In table 5 

 the data are presented according to areas fished. 



It can be seen that these data are in agreement with those of the 

 purse seine hauls insofar as they reflect the relative abundance of fish 

 at various points along the section line between Cape Seniavin and Cape 

 Newenham. Salmon were entering Bristol Bay at all points between the two 

 mentioned capes; however they were most numerous in the southern half of 

 the section line. 



No hauls were made closer to the shore than ten miles, however two 

 tagging experiments conducted in 19222/ in the vicinity of Cape Seniavin 

 proved rather conclusively that the Bristol Bay salmon do not follow close 



2/ Experiments in tagging adult red salmon, Alaska Peninsula Fisheries 

 Reservation, summer of 1922, by Charles H. Gilbert, Bulletin of the Bureau 

 of Fisheries, Volo XXXIX, 1923-192U. Washington, D.C. 



11 



