TWENTY-SKVEN'I'll 15 1 KN MA I, UKI'Olcr. 09 



they are eau.uht at sea. 11* this ('(tiild lir done it woiiM 1hcii he a simplf 

 matter to (letenniiu; what si I'c.-iiiis arc fiiiiiishitiL; the saliiiuii uiiidi 

 are being' eautilit in any sea ti'oUing disti-ii-t — a vn-y iicccssai'v pit-i-*' oT 

 information if we expect to regiUatc the sea or riser UshiiiL; |)r()[)crl>-. It 

 has been eonehuled tiiat it will take a vast amount ol" work and a irood 

 deal of time before we can hope ti) identify the ehinook salmon of any 

 of onr streams hy the ehai'aetcr of that pai't of their scales which was 

 formed while they wei-e i'vy in their nali\'e stream. It inay never he 

 ])ossible to do this. 



It has been decided that this knowledge can best be gained by niarkini,' 

 given nund)ers of salmon fi-y of the different streams as the\- ai-e liber- 

 ated from the hatcheries. Several of these mai'king experiments have 

 been carried out and the results have been so encouraging that a series 

 of these experiments on a more extensive scale has been planned. It 

 has been found from these experiments that sahuon from the Sacra- 

 mento River are caught in the sea by trollers from ]\Iontere.\ l'>a\'. to 

 Shelter Cove in ^Mendocino County. Just what proportion ai'e caught in 

 each of these widely separated trolling districts will not be known until 

 more extensive nmrking experiments are carried out. 



In the lig'ht of this slight knowledge gained it seems higldy [H'obable 

 that the development of the Mendocino County salmon trolliim-. was 

 largely at the expense of the Sacramento River salmon. It is quite cer- 

 tain that the large catch by trolling off the Mendocino coast came from 

 sources other than our northern California streams, and we now can not 

 help suspecting that the fishery was drawing heavily on the Sacramento 

 River salmon supply. This suspicion is strengtliened by the fact that 

 the salmon catch off ^Mendocino and in the Sacranu^nto have experienced 

 the same slump during the last three or four years. It is very necesisary 

 that we know how much of the Mendocino catch is from the Sacramento 

 if we are to properly regulate the sea trolling on the ^Mendocino coast. 

 The question is of the utmost practical importance and serves well as an 

 illustration of the practical value of investigation work. 



A second lot of Sacramento River salmon fry were marked and liber- 

 ated in the Sacramento two years ago. These fish will be in their fourth 

 year next season and it is expected that captures of these nmrked fish 

 will throw much light on the movements of the Sacramento salmon in 

 the sea. 



, Klamath River salmon fry were marked and liberated in the Klamath 

 three years ago. Some of these fish were recovered last year, when they 

 were in their third year, after they entered Klamath River. These 

 salmon were all mature males or "grilse." The-e marking experiments 

 have been reported upon by Professor J. O. Snyder in past numbers of 

 California Fish and Game. This year the sabnon which were 

 marked on the Klamath River are in their fourtli year, and intlividuals 

 were captured by trollers in Monterey Bay, off Point Reyes, Eureka and 

 in the Klamath' River. The results of this season's work also will be 

 reported in California Fish and Game. 



The first of a new series of marking experiments on the Klamath 

 River, was start^ed this year by marking and liberating 25,000 fry. Next 

 year this number will [)robably be doul)led, half of them to be liberated 

 in the ^lad River, the other half in the Shasta River, a trilnitary. in 

 order to get additional light on the parent stream theory. 



