XVIII REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES 



Shipments of eggs to foreign countries, fiscal year 192'f 



Country and species 



Canada: Blackspotted trout 



Chile: Soukeye salmon 



Czechoslovakia: Steelhead salmon. 



France: 



Blackspotted trout 



Rainbow trout 



Netherlands : C hinook salmon 



Poland: Rainbow trout 



Total.. 



Number of 

 eggs ship- 

 ped 



250, 000 



200. 000 



50,000 



50,000 



50, 000 



200, 000 



50, 000 



850, 000 



PROPAGATION OF PACIFIC SALMONS 



The fishery for sahiion is one of the most important commercially, 

 with an annual catch averaging about 475,000,000 pounds. The need 

 for preventing further depletion of this fish is keenly felt by con- 

 servationists, commercial fishermen, and others interested in the 

 per]5etuation of our aquatic resources. 



The run of sockeye salmon to the spawning grounds in Letnik 

 Lake, in the vicinity of the Afognak (Alaska) station, was the 

 smallest in years, the total escapement amounting to only 8,025. 



Fish-cultural Avork in the Washington field was conducted at the 

 Baker Lake station and six auxiliaries, five of which were in opera- 

 tion throughout the year. The species handled comprised all of the 

 Pacific salmons, including the steelhead, and the aggregate egg col- 

 lections of the group amounted to 50,545,000, or 1,296,000 less than 

 were obtained in the fiscal year 1923. 



A total of 62,043,500 eggs was collected in the Oregon field during 

 the year, most of them being chinook salmon eggs. The station's 

 activities were confined chiefly to the jn-opagation of species of 

 greater commercial importance. At the Snake River (Idaho) sub- 

 station the experiment was recently undertaken of marking consid- 

 able numbers of young chinook salmon of the fall run in an effort 

 to determine the possibility of inducing fall-spawning fish to enter 

 the Columbia River earlier in the year. The financial assistance 

 rendered by the State of Oregon enabled this group of stations to 

 rear a much larger number of fingerling salmon during the year 

 than would otherwise have been possible. 



The unusually warm, dry weather which has prevailed for the 

 past two years in the California field interfered seriously with the 

 propagation of chinook salmon, and, working under the handicap of 

 low water, onlv 6,078,000 eggs of this species were collected. From 

 this stock 1,050,000 advanced fry and 4,486,000 fingerlings No. I1/2 

 were produced and liberated on the spawning grounds in the vicinity. 



COMMERCIAL FISHES OF THE GREAT LAKES 



In 1922 the commercial fisheries of the Great Lakes yielded in 

 excess of 100,000,000 jiounds of products valued at more than 

 $6,450,000. About 85 per cent of this catch, in quantity, consisted 

 of ciscoes (35 per cent), pike perches (24 per cent), lake trout (13.5 



