FISHERIES OF ALASKA IN 1910. 35 



existed the uniformity was presumably greater than at present. The 

 variations in size of the run known t& have occurred since man dis- 

 turbed the balance of nature in these fisheries are reasonably due mainly 

 to the exigencies of the commercial industry, which has been unable 

 to make any correlation between its take and the quota necessary 

 for spawning. Even with these variations, no such thing as a failure 

 in the run is known to history or tradition. Even at the lowest ebbs 

 of the commercial fishery the salmon had still to be counted by 

 millions. As fisheries go, the Nushagak region and most of the 

 Bristol Bay streams are constant and perennial sources of salmon. 



That the determination of the rate of increase of red salmon, or 

 the limits within which it varies, is a matter of high importance is 

 self-evident. Of course a high rate has already been implied by the 

 great productivity of salmon fisheries and their failure in Alaska to 

 deplete rapidly under enormous drains. Presumably it has been 

 known to many that the fishermen have been, in many fisheries, 

 taking almost every year more than half the run. The lesser portion 

 must therefore have reproduced the whole run, which placed the 

 annual increment at over 100 per cent. Just how small this escap- 

 ing portion may be and .still reproduce a maximum run has been 

 and is yet the vital and crucial question. But three long steps 

 in answer have been taken by the three years of Wood River investi- 

 gations. 



There is no other way to obtain this increment percentage than 

 by continued counting of the breeders, which, with the commercial 

 catch, amounts to a census of the run. The three annual counts 

 already made in Wood River, coupled with general knowledge of 

 the other rivers of the bay, already show roughly what proportion 

 of the Nushagak Bay run has reached the spawning grounds in these 

 years, and since the Bering Sea fisheries are not rapidly declining 

 this is probably not much below the proportion which should reach 

 the spawning grounds. 



This showing is definite enough to be safely used in a practical 

 way as a basis for dividing the whole run into a commercial and a 

 breeding quota. At the beginning the tentative figures might be 

 70 per cent for the former and 30 per cent for the latter. Seventy 

 per cent is not far from representing the proportion of the run the 

 industry has been taking from Nushagak Bay in each of the past 

 two years. By the use of racks in the rivers the run could be divided 

 as it came into alternate daily portions, one to escape, the other for 

 the packers. Thus a definite proportion of the run would be insured 

 to the spawning grounds, and the actual number of fish of which it 

 consisted would be known. Even if a considerable inaccuracy 

 existed in the tentative fixing of 30 per cent for the breeding quota, 

 no injury would result, for the annual counts would constantly 



