STREAM CATALOG OF TIffi VJOOD RIVER LAJOi: 

 SYSTEIvI, BRISTOL BAY, AiASKA 



BITRODUCTION 



Studies of the spavming popula- 

 tions of red salmon in the VJood River 

 lalte system of ■'.restern Alaska have 

 been conducted annually since l<^kG. 

 In the first years of study, emphasis 

 was pla.ced on the magnitude of escape- 

 ment to the individual spa'.ming areas 

 and the length frequency and sex com- 

 position of spa'iming populations. In 

 recent years attention has been turned 

 to the escapement-return relation and 

 the relation between munbers of spasm- 

 ing salmon in the individual VJood 

 River lakes and abundajice and groirth 

 of progeny. 



Tlie total escapements into the 

 Wood River system for each of the 

 years 19^6-62 are shovm in table 1. 



Physical and biological informa- 

 tion on the creeks and rivers in the 

 system has become a backlog of useful 

 laiovled^e in the study of salmon runs . 

 Such information is now organized in 

 the form of a catalog and is presented 

 here. Futiire data can be readily 

 added to this catalog as they are col- 

 lected. Tlie present report is con- 

 fined to data on creeks and rivers in 

 the V/ood River system and does not 

 include beach spasming ajreas. 



Data for the yeoxs 19^6-59 vrere 

 collected under support of Alaska 

 salmon industry funds. Since 1959? 

 additional support has come from the 

 Bureau of Commercial Fisheries. The 

 compilation of this cataJ.og is com- 

 pleted \inder Contracts Wos. 1^-17- 



0005-33 and l!+-17-0007-91 (b) to the 

 Bureau of Commercial Fisheries. 



SOURCES OF DATA 



Descriptions of the rivers and 

 streams have been gathered by field 

 personnel of the Fisheries Research 

 Institute (FRI) . Data on spasming 

 salmon for the years 19'-l-6-59 were col- 

 lected by FRI; those since 1959 jointly 



Table 1. — Wood River lalces red salmon 

 escapement, 19^6-62. Estima.tes for 

 19^6-52 based on survey inde:;ces; for 

 1953-62, on Wood River tower counts 



Year 



Red salmon in 

 escapement 



19l;6 



19^7 

 19^8 

 19U9 

 1950 

 1951 

 1952 

 1953 

 195^ 

 1955 

 1956 

 1957 

 1958 



1959 

 i960 

 1961 

 1962 



Number 



3,717,000 



1,782,000 



l,i+83,250 



101,025 



^51,600 



if57,600 



226.800 



515,5^2 



570, 62U 



1,382,755 



773,101 



288,727 



960,1+55 



2,209,266 



1,016,073 

 ^60,737 

 873,888 



