18 REPORTS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE. 



The Bureau conducted an inquiry into this matter by a biological 

 assistant who is devoting his entire time to Pacific salmon problems, 

 and in August, 1918, made known the results of the inquiry. The fol- 

 lowing data are extracted from the published report: 



In Monterey Bay chinook salmon are taken exclusively by troll, and 

 a large percentage are immature. Accurate figures are not yet avail- 

 able, but well over 50 per cent of the fish seen at Monterey are dis- 

 tinctly immature. This is shown by the age as determined by the 

 scales, by the size of the fish, and by the size of the eggs in the 

 ovaries. 



Off the mouth of the Columbia River within the past four years 

 trolling and pm^se-seining have increased rapidly. Four years ago 

 there were no pm'se seines and but few troll boats operating in this 

 section, probably not more than 20 or 30. In 1918 there were 

 several dozen purse seiners and probably 2,000 trollers fishing just 

 outside the mouth of the river. An examination of some of tlie fish 

 brought in by this gear disclosed many immature specimens among 

 them, although these constituted a rather small proportion of the 

 catch at the time the examinations were made, August 12 and 13. 

 However, at one of the canneries at Astoria there was about a ton of 

 small fish which had been taken by troll, called locally ''grayling," 

 and a cursory examination showed that they were practically all 

 immature. It should be noted that all reports available, derived 

 from various sources, agree that the proportion of small and pre- 

 sumably immature, fish is much greater earlier in the season, particu- 

 arly during May and June. 



Outside the Strait of Juan de Fuca purse-seining has been carried 

 on for a number of years. Silver salmon constitute a large proportion 

 of the catch. The center of the industry is at Neah Bay. A report 

 by Dr. Charles H. Gilbert (''The Salmon of Swiftsure Bank," 1913) 

 contains a description of the fish taken here and shows that the ma- 

 jority are more or less immature. 



Practically all of the fish taken thus by troll and purse seine in 

 the open ocean are feeding and their stomachs are full of food. 

 Within a few hours after they are taken from the water auto-digestion 

 sets in and the fish soon become soft. The ribs loosen and the bellies 

 frequently become so soft that they break through. Such fish are 

 spoken of as being "belly-burned. " At Monterey this is not a serious 

 matter, so far as oili' observation goes, as the fish are delivered soon 

 after being caught. In the Columbia River and Puget Sound regions, 

 however, the fish are frequently in poor condition before they are 

 delivered. The small fish seen in Astoria were in very poor condition 

 and appeared hardly fit for human food. They were soft and badly 

 "beUy-burned " and the odor arising from them was most unpleasant. 



The economic waste resulting from this fishing may be summa- 

 rized as f oUows : 



1. Waste resulting from the taking offish before they have attained 

 fvll size. — A large number of these fish lack one, two, three, and 

 even four years of being mature, and in this time would increase to 

 from twice to 20 times the weight when taken. This loss may be 

 to some extent offset by the fact that fish are taken which before 

 reaching maturity would fall prey to enemies other than man. 

 There must be, however, comparatively few fish of the size taken 



