238 American Fisheries Society 



passing through to the spawning beds above. The numbers 

 that passed through in 1917 were far less than in 1913, not- 

 withstanding the blockade of the latter year. In place of the 

 4,000,000 that entered Quesnel Lake in 1909 and the 552,000 

 that entered its waters in 1913, less than 27,000 passed into 

 that great spawning area in 1917, and the numbers that reached 

 all the other great lake sections were proportionally less than 

 in 1913*. The number of sockeyes that reached the Fraser 

 basin in 1917 was not, in most sections, greater than in some 

 recent small years. The result of the spawning in 1917 will 

 not produce in 1921 a run even approximately as great as that 

 of 1917. In other words, it may be expected to be very much 

 less. The great run of the big years was destroyed by the 

 1913 blockade. The remnant of that run cannot withstand 

 the drain made upon it in 1917. It is already so small that it 

 must hereafter be classed with the runs in the small years. 

 And like the runs in the small years it will be completely 

 wiped out if present conditions continue. 



The runs of sockeyes to the Fraser system in the small 

 years are no longer of commercial importance. Dr. Gilbert, 

 in his article entitled "The Sockeye Run on the Fraser River"t 

 says: 



The history of the Fraser River sockeye runs shows unmistakably 

 that the three small years of each four-year cycle were over-fished early 

 in the history of the industry. During the early years, when fishing was 

 confined to the region about the mouth of the river, and drift-nets alone 

 were employed, no evidence exists of overfishing. The last cycle in 

 which these conditions obtained was 1894-96. During each of the small 

 years of that cycle (1894, 1895, and 1896) there were packed approx- 

 imately 350,000 cases on the Fraser River and about 60,000 cases in 

 Puget Sound. During each of those years, therefore, about 5,000,000 

 sockeyes were taken from the spawning run and used for commercial 

 purposes. It should have been considered at that time an open question 

 whether enough salmon to keep the run going had been permitted to 

 escape to the spawning grounds. Apparently, however, a third of a 

 million cases a year could be safely spared, for the following cycle shows 

 no decrease. If from the beginning the pack had been limited to a third 



• British Columbia Fisheries Report, tg^?, P- si. 



flbid., pp. II3-II4- 



