THE FRASER RIVER SALMON SITUATION. 



of the Eraser between Yale and Agassiz in September and October. 

 The number which reached Quesnel Lake was little more than an 

 eighth of the number which entered that lake in 1909. The run to 

 Chilko Lake was equally small. The sockeye run to Seton Lake was 

 30,000, as against 1,000,000 in 1909. The August and September run 

 of sockeye to Shuswap and Adams Lakes was much less than in any 

 former big year, and the October and November run was also less. 

 The sockeye-eggs collected there this year totalled but 9,000,000, as 

 against 27,500,000 four years ago and 18,000,000 in 1905. The run 

 to Lillooet Lake was less than in any recent year. Finally, the run 

 to Harrison Lake was slightly better than in 1909. 



" These facts, in my opinion, warrant the conclusion that the 

 number of sockeye which spawned in the Fraser River watershed 

 this year was not sufficient to make the run four years hence even 

 approximate the runs of either 1905, 1909, or 1913." 



The disastrous effect of the 1913 blockade was manifested on both 

 the fishing and spawning grounds in 1917, since the run in the latter 

 year was the product of the 1913 spawning. The catch of 1917 

 produced a pack of but 559,732 cases as against 2,401,488 cases, or 76 

 per cent, less than in 1913, notwithstanding the fact that more fisher- 

 men and more gear were employed than in 1917 and the price paid 

 for fish was higher. 



Small as was the catch of 1917, too great a proportion of the run of 

 that year was captured. That is, a sufficient number of fish were 

 not permitted to reach the spawning area. In place of the millions 

 of sockeye that reached Hell's Gate in 1913, only hundreds of thou- 

 sands reached there in 1917. The obstructions having been removed, 

 the fish had no difficulty in passing through to the spawning-beds 

 above. The numbers that passed through in 1917 were far less than 

 in 1913, notwithstanding 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 proportionately less than in 1913.* The 

 number of sockeye 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 approxi- 

 mately 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 



* British Columbia Fisheries Report, 1917, page 21. 



