66 FISH AND GAME COMMISSION, 



number of salmon has been so greatly reduced that it is not very profit- 

 able for the fishermen to fish either in the open sea or on the Sacramento 

 River so that now many are arguing that fishing be stopped entirely 

 either in the sea or in the river. The policy of the Fish and Game 

 Commision, which has been to keep both forms of fishing and to pre- 

 serve the salmon by restricting the fishing in both of these regions, is 

 no longer tenable for the reason that the startling decrease of the past 

 two years in the abundance of salmon has now made it necessary to 

 so restrict the catch that it would not be profitable for either the sea 

 fishermen or the river fishermen to operate if the catch must be 

 divided between the two places. It would seem necessary under these 

 circumstances to follow the lead of Washington and Oregon and elimin- 

 ate the catching of salmon in the sea. The chief argument against out- 

 side trolling is that many immature salmon are caught by that method 

 and that the fish being full of feed are difficult to market in the best 

 of condition. 



It will also be necessary, in our opinion, to adopt radical protective 

 measures on the Sacramento River even if outside trolling is stopped. 

 Any protection given the salmon outside will result in more intensive: 

 fishing inside and a sufficient number of salmon would not escape the 

 nets and reach the spawning grounds unless inside fishing is also re- 

 stricted. The closed seasons inside are not sufficient even now and 

 the distance fishing as permitted up the river is entirely too great. For 

 the protection of salmon as well as of striped bass and shad, we recom- 

 mend that net fishing be prohibited above Rio- Vista; that there be 

 adopted a closed season from May 15th to July 15th, and that the use 

 of trammel nets and "diver" nets be prohibited in the river. 



Potver and Irrigation Dams a Menace to Salmon. Salmon at matur- 

 ity leave the sea and ascend streams nearly to their source where the 

 two sexes pair off and the female deposits her eggs in a crude nest 

 where they lay buried in the gravel until they are hatched. In the 

 Sacramento River tributaries it takes the eggs about two months before 

 the embryo breaks from the egg. It is about a month more before the 

 yolk of the egg is used up by the embryo and it is necessary for it to seek 

 other food. It then emerges from the gravel and feeds upon insects 

 and whatever other food it can find in the water. Within a year it 

 drifts down the stream and passes out to sea where is remains until 

 it has reached maturity three or four years later. It then ascends its 

 native stream, as its parents did before it, for the purpose of repro- 

 duction. 



It can plainly be seen that if salmon are to be saved from extinction 

 they must not only be saved from the fishermen's nets, but they must 

 be able to ascend their parent streams in sufficient numbers to perpetu- 

 ate the race and the yoiing after hatching must be able to pass clown 

 the stream into the sea. Any dam or artificial obstruction in the river 

 "wdll, if high enough to prevent the salmon from leaping over, prevent 

 the salmon from reaching the spawning grounds in the headwaters. If 

 the young salmon, in their migration to the sea are permitted to pass 

 into irrigation ditches and thence on to the land where they would die ; 

 or if they are permitted to pass through the turbines or power plants 

 where they would be killed, the future supply of salmon in that par- 



