PROGRESS IN BIOLOGICAL INQUIRIES, 1936 19 
limit of the commercial fishery on the South Atlantic coast. Shrimp 
are taken in quantities in this region only through the winter 
months, with January the peak month. The 1935 tagging campaign 
in Georgia and northern Florida showed that shrimp from the South 
Carolina, Georgia, and northern Florida area move south to the 
central Florida coast during the winter. 
The releases of tagged shrimp at Cape Canaveral and New Smyrna 
in January and February 1936 were for the purpose of learning 
whether there is a return movement to the Georgia coast in the 
spring, as was indicated by length frequency data. Of 399 releases 
at Cape Canaveral in January over 41 percent were returned, and 
the majority of recaptures were made in the vicinity of the Cape 
within 2 weeks from the date of release. A large proportion of the 
tagged shrimp undoubtedly succumbed directly or indirectly from 
the handling received in the tagging process, consequently the above 
returns indicate that the majority of the successfully tagged shrimp 
were recaptured near the point of release and in a very short period 
of time. The numbers of marked individuals that escaped the Cape 
Canaveral fishery and were recaptured in the northern fishery were 
insufficient to prove that a return movement to the north occurs in 
the spring. Nevertheless, the combined evidence of these returns and 
the length frequency distributions suggest that such a movement may 
occur. More intensive tagging will be done during the coming 
winter. 
In September Mr. Lindner and Mr. Anderson tagged 3,045 shrimp 
from Cape Romain, South Carolina, to Brunswick, Ga. The returns 
indicate that at least a few shrimp from as far north as Cape Romain, 
S. C., migrate to Florida waters in the winter. The greatest distance 
between points of release and point of recapture was recorded for a 
shrimp released near the west end of Bull Creek Island, S. C., on 
September 6 and recaptured on December 19 off the mouth of Ponce 
de Leon Inlet, Fla. The distance traveled was well over 300 miles. 
At the time of tagging this shrimp was 15 cm in length and at 
recapture had grown to 17 cms. 
PACIFIC COAST AND ALASKA FISHERY INVESTIGATIONS 
Dr. FREDERICK A. DAVIDSON, in charge 
The Pacific coast and Alaska fishery investigations with head- 
quarters in the Bureau of Fisheries Biological Station at Seattle, 
Wash., are confined mainly to the solution of problems concern- 
ing the maintenance and rehabilitation of the salmon_and_her- 
ring fisheries of Alaska and the salmon fisheries of Puget Sound and 
the Columbia River. All of the major investigations in progress 
in 1935 were continued in 1936. 
COLUMBIA RIVER SALMON FISHERIES 
Investigations relative to the maintenance and rehabilitation of 
the fisheries of the Columbia River were continued during the year 
1936 by J. A. Craig, assisted by A. J. Suomela. The major projects 
of this investigation include: 
1. An analysis of the condition and trend of the commercial fishery 
in the lower estuary of the river to determine whether or not 
