PROGRESS IN BIOLOGICAL INQUIRIES, 1926 641 
some years we got not only one-half of the total run, but the 
entire run. 
We proceeded to deal with that situation in a modest way. We 
did not know at the time what the total run of the Karluk River was. 
We did not know what the ordinary escapement was. We did set, in 
the case of the Karluk and Chignik Rivers, an arbitrary number. 
The number that we fixed at that time was 1,000,000. That is the 
minimum on the Karluk River to permit of a commercial fishery. 
The same thing is true on the Chignik. We may find later that the 
minimum that we have set is entirely too small to answer our needs. 
In 1922, the second year of our operations on the Karluk River, 
before this provision had been adopted only 500,000 fish proceeded to 
the spawning grounds. We expect returns from those fish next year. 
The following year, 1923, about 670,000 fish went to the spawning 
grounds. 
Mr. Rapcrirre. I would like to stress the tremendous economic 
importance of this work. The world production of solmon in 1924 
was about 1,000,000,000 pounds. Of that, the United States pro- 
duced 520,000,000 pounds and British Columbia 197,000,000 pounds; 
or, the combined, production on our North Pacific coast was seven- 
tenths of the world production. 
The production of salmon in the North Atlantic is very small— 
less than 1 per cent. 
This tremendous salmon-canning industry started in the States. 
As the fishery became depleted, the canneries moved northward. 
They are at the outpost of that industry. Either the industry must 
be maintained where it now exists, or we shall have to do without 
salmon, unless, perhaps, we can look to the southern seas. 
Doctor Gilbert mentioned the fact that the scientist in the North 
is on trial. I sometimes wonder if it wouldn’t be a good thing if 
more of us were on trial. 
Mr. Tuomrson. Doctor Gilbert is in somewhat the same position 
that we are in the case of the halibut. The North Pacific seems to 
have been chosen as a ground to try the biologist. The great 
problems he has met and his statement of them apply very aptly 
to the halibut. I think that as I gain in experience with the marine 
fisheries, it is impressed upon me more and more that the funda- 
mental problems to be met are very much the same, and that as the 
biologist is brought to face the facts in other regions, he will have 
to come to the same conclusion. I think those statements of funda- 
mentals in the salmon problem, stated perhaps a little bit differ- 
ently, would apply to a great many other fisheries. 
We have in the inshore fisheries quite a problem as to the relative 
rate of fertility of the young and older stages. That has become of 
considerable importance in such fish as herring and halibut. The 
salmon goes to sea in its second year and remains for 4, 5, or 6 years. 
There is an interlude of sea life, and there is no way of getting at 
the mortality then. 
I am interested to observe that there is a definite correlation between 
the spawning runs in the case of the Fraser River and the returns to 
that river. The fluctuations in the sea have not been so great nor so 
marked as to destroy that correlation between the spawning run and 
66552—28-—-9 
