708 U. S. BUBEAU OF FISHERIES 



average catch return per unit of effort and gear was without any pro- 

 nounced increase or decrease. Since 1925, however, there has been 

 a steady" decUne from 196 pounds average catch per man per fishing 

 day to 102 pounds average catch per man per fishing day during 1929. 



It has been possible to determine through a study of the number of 

 licenses issued on the Columbia River, by both of the States of Wash- 

 ington and Oregon, that the amount of gear fishing on that river has 

 been comparatively constant during the period of time from 1909 to 

 1929, inclusive. This obviates the possible error that might have 

 been caused if the amount of gear on the river had increased or de- 

 creased greatly during the last few years and so caused a drop or rise 

 on catch per unit of effort and gear due to increased or decreased com- 

 petition between pieces of gear. 



From tagging and other biological studies it is known that the 

 salmon population spawning in the Columbia River system is com- 

 posed of numerous separate races or "runs," each of which has its 

 individual parent tributary stream or spawning area, and a fairly 

 constant time for making its annual upstream migration. With these 

 facts already determined it appears that it may be possible by a study 

 of the detailed data to learn something of the fluctuations in abun- 

 dance of the separate runs, rate of upstream migration, and at what 

 time populations bound for certain tributaries pass through the com- 

 mercial fishery. 



In order to make the results of this investigation conclusive and 

 to guard against possible errors, it is planned to collect more data 

 during the summer of 1930 to establish the adequacy of the present 

 method for sampling the catch records. 



TECHNOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS 



Applied fisheries technology has given the fisheries industries a 

 new outlook on the future. In the three or four decades preceding 

 the World War, little was done to improve conditions in the fisheries 

 with the result that they were fast losing ground. However, under 

 the war's stimulus for more protein food and cheaper methods of 

 manufacture, the fisheries industries learned that to compete with 

 other food industries radical changes were necessary. Realizing this, 

 several agencies set about to study the problems, foremost of which 

 were the I3ureau of Fisheries and the College of Fisheries at the Uni- 

 versity of Washington in Seattle, Wash. These agencies instituted 

 fishery products laboratories where technological studies were made 

 of our fish manufacturing industries. During the interim from war 

 times to the present the industry has applied the results of experi- 

 ments conducted in these laboratories to commercial procedure, as 

 well as those obtained from research in private fisheries products 

 laboratories more recently established by various fishing companies, 

 and the industry forged ahead in a revolutionary fashion. As a result, 

 excessive overhead expense in the production and manufacture of 

 fishery products has been reduced; a larger number of inland con- 

 sumers have been supplied with fresh and frozen fishery products, 

 especially those marketed in attractive unit packages of uniform 

 quality; by-products, which formerly were utilized for fertilizer or in 

 the arts and industries, are now used for feedstufi's and, in addition, 

 the role of fishery products in the dietary of man has been demon- 



