BUREAU OF FISHERIES 297 
cided upon, and has requested of the two Governments, the additional 
funds necessary to inaugurate the required engineering and biological 
studies. Until such are received, important phases of the duties out- 
lined by the Convention must remain in abeyance, a fact which the 
formal action of the Commission emphasizes. 
The investigations of the Commission were reviewed at the mid- 
winter meeting in Washington, D. C. With special emphasis upon 
facts necessary for regulation, they covered the migrations of the races 
of adult sockeye, their abundance, rate of movement, and time of 
passage through salt and fresh water to their spawning grounds. The 
effect of obstructions upon migration, the extent and nature of the 
spawning grounds, and factors influencing the success and failure of 
spawning were surveyed. 
As in 1938, sockeye were tagged at Sooke, at various places in Puget 
Sound and the Gulf of Georgia, and at Hell’s Gate in the Fraser River 
canyon, for study of the migration and habits. The returns were 
extraordinarily high. At Sooke 1,051 fish were tagged, and 51 percent 
returned, as compared to 44 percent in 1938. As before, those tagged 
prior to the first week in July were returned from rivers other than the 
Fraser. Of other tagging in salt water, 6,152 fish were tagged, and 
65 percent recaptured, as compared to 2,587 tagged and 47 percent re- 
captured in 1938. At Hell’s Gate 4,344 fish were tagged and 54 percent 
returned, as compared to 2,128 and 27 percent in 1938. The operations 
were continued over the full season, instead of about half as in 1938. 
Analysis of the returns is underway. 
At Hell’s Gate the time of passage and degree of obstruction to 
movement were studied. The run past that point was found to be 
divisible into sections, each bound for a different part of the Fraser 
River; exceedingly valuable information for regulatory purposes. 
Observers were again stationed at the canneries for sampling of the 
catch, recovery of tags, and gathering of statistics. Others were sta- 
tioned in the several sections of the Fraser watershed to estimate and 
take samples of the escapement, recover tags, survey the grounds, and 
report on obstructions. As before, there was the closest cooperation 
with the officers of the Canadian Department of Fisheries. 
It was obvious that despite the utmost vigilance, enumeration of 
the escapement by existing methods was neither accurate nor complete. 
Accordingly the successful experiment on a relatively simple method 
tried at Cultus Lake and described in last year’s report was this year 
extended to the Harrison-Birkenhead system, tributary to the Fraser. 
Traps and weirs were constructed and the runs there studied closely 
as a preliminary to a more extensive experiment in 1940, if funds 
become available. It is now clear that here, as in the main river, there 
292245—41——_2 
