A RECLAMATION PROJECT. 



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 here- 

 after 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 

 shall continue. 



The runs of sockeye 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,"* says : 



" The history of the Fraser River sockeye runs show unmistakably 

 that the three small years of each four-year cycle were overfished 

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

 fishing was confined to the regions 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 approximately 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 sockeye 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 runs 

 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 of a million cases for 

 each small year, apparently the runs would still have continued in 

 their primitive abundance. 



"During the following 1 period of four years (1897, 1898, 1899, and 

 1900) the traps on Puget Sound became an important matter. While 

 the British Columbia pack shows little or no reduction, it was met by 

 a pack on Puget Sound which nearly equalled it. The total captures 

 during the three off-years of this cycle nearly doubled those of the 

 preceding years and exacted an average toll of about 10,000,000 fish 

 from the spawning run of those years. The total pack of the three 

 small years of this cycle was over 2,000,000 cases. 



" The result was quickly apparent. If 5,000,000 fish could be safely 

 spared, this figure nevertheless must have been near the upper limit of 

 safety, for when 10,000,000 fish were abstracted the small years of the 

 following cycle showed such a marked decline as to indicate that we 

 had far overstepped the line of safety. It was then during the cycle 



* British Columbia Fisheries Report, 1917, pages 113-14. 



