PROGRESS IN BIOLOGICAL INQUIRIES, 193 4 367 



freqiK'iicieiJ of ago classes show that the herring of Noycs Island, 

 Doughis Island-Icy Strait area, Afllock Canal, and Peril Strait are 

 much slower growing than those of other localities. Age distribu- 

 tions support the analysis of verbebrae and growth rates, in separat- 

 ing the })opulations oi' Noyes Island, Peril Strait, and the Douglas 

 Island-Icy Strait areas from neighboring localities. Tlie recovery at 

 Cape Onnnaney of tags affixed to spawners at Sitka demonstrated the 

 relation between that spawning ground and the summer feeding area. 

 The failure to recover any of the tags affixed at Cape Bendel in Fred- 

 erick Sound gives negative evidence to show lack of intermingling of 

 these tish at the feeding grounds in lowei- Cape Ommaney with the 

 other ])opulations. 



Further experiments in the tracing of migrations by tagging were 

 carried out during the spring of 1934. Twenty-one thousand five hun- 

 dred and sixty-one metal belly tags were affixed to spawners at two 

 of the major spawning areas, 8,394 at Craig on the outside of Prince 

 of Wales Island, and 13,167 at Sitka, on Baranof Island. On 18,368 

 of these, a tag modified from those of previous years was used, the 

 change consisting of having the tag stamped from steel, then plated 

 with nickel, and in increasing the size to about double that of the 

 nickel tags used previously. The larger size makes the tagging easier 

 and faster. Corrosion, which might be expected to occur when there 

 are imperfections in the plating, did not take place in the body cavity 

 of the fish, and tiigs recovered 6 months after tagging showed their 

 original luster. The 3,193 others were tagged with pure nickel tags 

 left over from the 1933 experiment. 



By means of the electromagnets installed at the reduction plants, 

 153, or 2.1 percent, of the steel tags affixed at Craig were recovered 

 as against six-tenths of 1 percent of the nickel tags from the same 

 experiment. Recoveries were made largely from the Warren and 

 Noyes Island areas, although a small percentage were reported taken 

 from Cape Ommaney. The Noyes Island and Warren Island fish are 

 thus shown to be of the same population. Four hundred and eighty- 

 eight, or 4.4 percent, of the Sitka steel tags and 40, or 1.8 percent, 

 of the nickel tags at Sitka were recovered. They were taken, as were 

 those of the 1933 experiment, from the vicinity of Cape Ommaney. 

 A small fraction of these recoveries were made at the Warren-Noyes 

 area. The degree of intermingling of the Cape Ommaney and War- 

 ren-Noyes Island populations, first indicated in this experiment, can- 

 not be measured accurately until a device is perfected to extract the 

 tagged individual before being run through the reduction plant. 

 Such a unit has been devised and will be given a trial during the 

 coming year. 



Biweekly samples of the catch taken during the 1934 season in 

 southeastern Alaska indicate a great predominance of 4-year-old 

 individuals. As a result of the population being so young a rela- 

 tively small pack of cured fish was prepared, a condition which may 

 be expected to continue during the 1935 season. If this year class is 

 not too seriously depleted, it should yield a good pack in 1936 due to 

 the increased size of the herring. 



Samples of the catch in Prince William Sound were collected, add- 

 ing an additional year's data from this region. Sampling at Dutch 



