FISHERY INDUSTRIES OF THE UNITED STATES, 1929 707 



from 1924. The latest catch statistics now avail abk> on each geo- 

 graphical section are as follows: New P^ngland, South Atlantic, 

 Gulf, Pacific Coast, and Great Lakes States, 1928; Middle Atlantic 

 States, 1926; Chesapeake Bay States, 1925; and Mississippi River 

 and tributaries, 1922. 



In addition to the general catch statistics, the collection and (or) 

 pubHcation of statistics on special subjects was continued during 

 1929, as follows: The landings of fish b,y American fishing vessels at 

 the ports of Boston and Gloucester, Mass., Portland, Me., and Seattle, 

 Wash.; landings of halibut at North Pacific coast ports (published 

 monthly, and annual bulletins summarizing these landings for the 

 year); catch of mackerel in the North Atlantic fishery; cold-storage 

 holdings of frozen and cured fish and amount of fish frozen, which 

 are fui'nished by the Bureau of Agricultural Economics (published 

 monthly); production, consumption, and holdings of marine-animal 

 oils of the United States and Alaska (published cjuarterly by the 

 Bureau of the Census); production of canned fishery products and 

 by-products of the United States and Alaska during 1929; the catch 

 of shad in the Potomac and Hudson Rivers; the catch of alewives 

 in the Potomac River during 1929; transactions on the sponge 

 exchange at Tarpon Springs, Fla., during 1929; volume of fishery 

 products handled at the municipal fish wharf and market, Washing- 

 ton, D. C, during 1929; and the volume of United ^States imports 

 and exports of fishery products during 1929, furnished by the Bureau 

 of Foreign and Domestic Commerce. 



CATCH ANALYSIS— COLUMBIA RIVER CHINOOK 

 SALMON FISHERY 



An investigation was initiated by the bureau during the summer 

 of 1929 for the purpose of determining the relative abundance of 

 chinook salmon in the Columbia River over as long a period of time 

 as might be possible. The method used in attacking the problem 

 consisted of making an analysis of the detailed catch records of this 

 fishery in order to determine the average catch return per constant 

 unit of effort and gear in each year represented in the available data. 



With this objective in mind, detailed records of the daily catches 

 of individual fishermen delivered at Astoria, St. Helens, Clifton, and 

 Warrendale — all in the State of Oregon — were collected and tabu- 

 lated. The catches of the gill-net fishermen appeared to ofl"er the 

 best and most accurate data and were used exclusively in this analysis. 

 The collection of these records was made possible through the coopera- 

 tion of the Oregon Fish Commission, the Washington Department of 

 Fisheries and Game, and several of the packing companies on the 

 Columbia River. The records from Astoria covered the period from 

 1909 to 1929, inclusive, and those from Warrendale, Clifton, and St. 

 Helens, 1923 to 1928, inclusive. The average daily landing per 

 fisherman for each day and at each locality included in these data 

 was computed. Since these fishermen are always near a bu3dng 

 station, cannery, or buyer's boat, the daily landings are, in prac- 

 tically all cases, the result of one day's fishing and were so considered 



From these data and daily averages, several types of indices of 

 abundance were computed for each group of data and it was found 

 that according to the Astoria data from 1909 to 1925, the trend of the 



