PrvOPAGATIOX AND DISTRIBUTION OF FOOD FISHES, 1923. 25 



In the course of the year a number of minor repairs were made to 

 station buildings, roads, equipment, and vessels. A 32-volt, 850- 

 watt Delco lighting sj^stem, equipped with storage batteries, was 

 purchased and installed in an insulated room for furnishing light 

 to the various buildings. A one-half-kilowatt radio transmitting 

 set was also purchased and installed in one of the rooms in the bunk 

 house. This set is capable of sending on a 300, 420, or 600-meter 

 wave length, and has ample ])ower to permit of communication with 

 the naval radio station at Kodiak. A 5,000-meter crystal detector 

 receiving set was also provided. 



Most of the trays used in the stacked-tray system at this station 

 are 1 inch high and are used in the troughs in stacks of four — 

 three filled ones with an empty one at the top. As an experiment 

 1,000 trays three-fourths inch high with mitered corners were con- 

 structed, and were placed four filled trays to a stack. They were 

 found to work just as successfully as the deeper ones, and by their 

 use the capacity of a fry-holding trough is increased one-third. 



YES BAY (ALASKA) STATION. 

 [JOHX W. Gardner, Superintendent.] 



The fish-cultural work at this important salmon hatchery during 

 the fiscal year 1923 ma}^ be considered satisfactory. Notmthstand- 

 ing the short egg-collecting period, which extended from September 

 5 to September 22, sockeye-salmon eggs to the number of 25,000,000 

 were taken, and approximately 500,000 eggs of the humpback salmon 

 were obtained incidentally. On September 22 the fishing racks were 

 wrecked by heavy drift washed against them during a sudden rise 

 in the river. The collecting season was thus abruptly ended, though 

 spawning fish in considerable numbers were ascending the river then 

 and for some time afterwards. 



For the first time since the general adoption of stacked trays for 

 holding salmon fry through the yolk-sac absorption period a com- 

 plaint has been registered against the system. The superintendent 

 of the Yes Bay station reports that during the year a loss in excess 

 of 29 per cent occurred among the fish thus held, while the death 

 rate among tlie fry held in troughs was merely nominal. He attrib- 

 utes the abnormal loss to an unusual condition of the water supplv; 

 at least such a condition had never been observed previously at the 

 station. He states that circulation was almost entirely precluded 

 at times by the presence of quantities of slime, which covered the 

 frames and Avires of the trays, forming a jellylike sul)stance. This 

 slime is supposed to have come from the swampy tundra of the sur- 

 rounding region. The superintendent suggests that the trouble 

 might be overcome by the removal of the 14-inch mesh from the trays 

 and the substitution of 10 or 12-inch mesh. 



The year's output of the station consisted of 20,000,000 sockeye 

 salmon, all but 1.500.000 being fingerlings No. 1; also humpback 

 salmon fry to the number of 393,600, and upward of 4,000,000 sock- 

 eye fingerlings remained in the troughs at the end of the year. 



Approximately 6,500,000 sockeye fingerlings were placed in Mc- 

 Donald Slough, an inclosed arm of Yes Lake about 4 acres in area, 

 which has been used for several seasons as a rearing pond. Before 



