APPENDIX III APPENDIX III 
SALMON 
Five species of Pacific salmon comprise the fishery: 
chinook, chum, pink, coho, and sockeye salmon-))in) 1975 the 
pink and chum salmon accounted for about 45 percent of the 
U.S. commercial landings. Sockeye salmon accounted for about 
26 percent and is considered the most valuable species for 
canning purposes. The chinook and coho salmon are the least 
abundant of the species and are important for commercial troll 
and sport fisheries. 
The U.S. commercial salmon fishery, located along the 
Pacific coast from California to Alaska, employs more vessels 
and fishermen than any other U.S. commercial fishery. Landed 
value of salmon has ranked first or second among all finfish 
fisheries between 1940 and 1975. In 1975 salmon also ranked 
first in value of fish products exported from the United 
States. 
STATUS OF THE FISHERY 
Current harvest 
U.S. landings of Pacific salmon in 1975 were 201.6 mil- 
lion pounds worth $116.3 million--a gain of 4.8 million 
pounds, but a decrease of $5 million in value compared with 
1974. The 1975 harvest was the second smallest since 1915, 
when 120.4 million pounds were taken, and was below the 1970- 
74 average of 278.4 million pounds. The following table shows 
the 1972 U.S. commercial salmon catch by species and by State. 
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