PROPAGATION AND DISTRIBUTION OF FOOD FISHES, 1925 461 



The results of incubation were very good, however, the losses amounting to only 

 about SJ4 per cent. 



Early in the winter the entire water-supply pipe line froze during a protracted 

 cold spell, and as very little water was available in the hatchery the 6,300,000 fry 

 on hand had to be liberated and the eggs crowded into a comparatively small 

 space. In this way thej^ were safely carried through the succeeding 15 days, at the 

 expiration of which time water conditions were again normal. AH fr^^ hatched 

 from these eggs were reserved for rearing to the fingerling stage, and most of them 

 were still on hand at the close of the fiscal year. Due probably to the occurrence 

 of heavy rains and ususually cold water during the incubation period, there was 

 no evidence during the season of the trouble which has occasionally been ex- 

 perienced in recent years from the accumulation of gas in the hatchery water 

 supply. 



During the year 3,219 predatory fish were taken in gill nets and destroyed. 

 Very few Dolly Varden trout were seen on the spawning grounds, probably 

 because they were intensively fished for earlier in the season. 



Baker Lake (Wash.) Station and Substations 

 [Joseph Kemmerich, Superintendent] 



Fish-cultural work in this field was conducted at only five points, the Brinnon 

 eying plant, formerlj^ operated, having, been abandoned as a result of experiments 

 made during the previous j^ear which demonstrated that eggs collected in that 

 region could be successfully transported in the green state to the Duckabush and 

 Quilcene hatcheries. From the several species of salmon handled at this group 

 of stations, 48,578,000 eggs were obtained; this being a reduction of approxi- 

 mately 2,000,000, compared with the total of the previous year. The decrease 

 is attributed to the unfavorable weather encountered in some fields while certain 

 species were spawning, and to the fact that it was an oi? year for the run of 

 humpback salmon in Puget Sound waters. The collections were augmented by 

 the receipt, from outside sources, of more than 16,000,000 eyed eggs of the 

 Chinook, silver, and humpback salmons. Such transfers were handled at the 

 Birdsview, Duckabush, and Quilcene substations. 



Baker Lake (Wash.) station. — Fish-cultured operations, addressed to the sock- 

 eye and silver salmons, were in progress practically throughout the j'ear. Very 

 gratifying work was accomplished with the soekeye salmon, the egg collections 

 being the largest in the history of the station. Beginning July 1, the trap pre- 

 viously installed in Baker River was fished almost daily until the end of the run 

 on August 21, and 14,558 captured salmon were removed therefrom to the station 

 inclosure. All of the 22,000,000 eggs secured from these fish were of uniformly 

 good quality, and the losses, both in the incubation and fry stages, were merely 

 nominal. 



The run of silver salmon in Baker River was the smallest in some years. This, 

 no doubt, was occasioned in part by unsatisfatory water conditions, but the power 

 dam in course of construction at Concrete, Wash., was a contributing factor, as it 

 was apparent that the fish were unable to pass through the diversion tunnel. Of 

 the brood salmon captured late in October and held for ripening, the 404 females 

 available at spawning time yielded 1,380,000 eggs of good quality. Following the 

 practice of recent years, the eggs were eyed at the station and then transferred to 

 the Birdsview substation, the mode of conveyance being by pack horse as far as 

 Concrete and by autotruck the remainder of the distance. 



Birdsview {Wash.) substation. — As in recent years, salmon propagation at this 

 point was seriously hampered by turbid water in Grandy Creek, the result of the 

 tearing up of the banks and bed of the stream by the extensive logging operations 

 going on near its headwaters. The water entering the hatchery was so muddy 

 that the eggs and fry in the troughs could not be seen, and it was almost constantly 

 necessary to remove the accumulation of sediment in the trays. During Septena- 

 ber and early October, ordinarily the spawning season for chinook salmon in this 

 creek, the water level was so low that fish could not enter. Following several 

 light rains later in October a few chinooks were taken in the trap and 180,000 eggs 

 secured. At the close of the fiscal year the fingerlings resulting from these eggs 

 were being held in ponds and fed, at which time they were 2J^ inches long. 



The few fingerling silver salmon carried over from the previous fiscal year 

 were liberated early in August in the Skagit River. Eggs of this species to the 

 number of 3,163,000 were secured between October 18 and January 24, a great 

 many of the earlier ones being taken from fish that had been held in pens for 

 some time to ripen. These, with the addition of the eggs furnished from the 



