904 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 
A number of methods have been employed for taking the fish as 
they are grouped below the rack and seeking for an opening, but the 
most practicable has been found to be by means of drag or haul 
seines swept across the area just below the rack. When the pocket 
or bunt is brought close to shore the workmen pick out the ripe fish 
and turn the others back to remain until they reach this stage. The 
ripe fish are placed in pens or live boxes made for this purpose, the 
males and females being kept separate. These live boxes are usuall 
on the under side of a floating platform, and are accessible through 
hinged covers set in the plank flooring. Projecting beyond this 
platform is usually another, upon which the actual work of stripping 
the fish and caring for the pans is performed. 
At afew places where the fish are caught before they have reached 
the ripe stage, notably Karluk, the fish are placed in a pound or 
corral and held until they become ripe. This method is resorted 
to only in case of necessity. 
The surest sign of ripeness in a female is the separation of the eggs 
in the ovaries, but the experienced spawn taker can, from the general 
appearance of the fish, usually tell whether she is ripe or not, according 
to Bower: ¢ 
An interesting experiment was conducted at the Afognak station last season [1910] 
to determine the degree of ripeness producing the best quality of eggs. The loss on 
the lot taken from females which were dead ripe—eggs flowing very freely—was less 
than 1 per cent, while with another lot, where the females were ordinarily ripe upon 
testing in the usual manner, the loss was about 5 per cent. This shows the need of 
caution in having fish fully ripe before stripping, if the highest degree of efficiency is 
to be expected. 
TAKING THE EGGS. 
As the eggs of the females confined in pens are likely to be injured 
within the fish, stripping is usually done every day. 
When ready for spawn taking, one man lifts a female from the live 
box by means of a small dip net, while another man lifts out a male 
in the same manner. They are held suspended in the net until 
their violent struggles are over, when it is easy to handle them. 
For many years, and even yet at many hatcheries, the method of 
taking salmon spawn has been by pressing the eggs out by steady 
downward pressure on the belly of the fish. The milt from the male 
is obtained in the same way. 
Where the force is large and the fish rather small the quickest 
way is for one to hold the fish in one hand and press out the eggs 
or milt with the other. When the fish are large, or the working 
force is small, a strait-jacket is used. This is a sort of trough made 
about the average length of the salmon and hollowed out to fit its 
general shape. A permanent cleat is set across the lower end, while 
at the upper end is a strip with a buckle. The fish is slid into the 
trough, the tail gomg below the cleat, where it is securely held, and 
the head buckled in at the upper end with the strap. In this con- 
dition the fish is unable to do any harm by its struggles and the eggs 
can be pressed out at leisure. 
@ Fish Culture in Alaska, by Ward T. Bower. In Alaska Fisheries and Fur Industries in 1911, by 
B.W.Evermann. U.S. Bureau of Fisheries Document No. 766, p. 70. Washington, 1912. 
