114 



FISH AND GAME COMMISSION 



The troll catch in Monterey Bay is now only about ten per cent of 

 what it was a few years ago. The number of salmon escaping the nets 

 and reaching the spawning grounds, as evidenced by the number of 

 eggs the Sacramento spawn-taking stations are able to take, is only five 

 per cent of what it was twenty years ago. The total catch of salmon, 

 including the Sacramento River and the troll catch in the sea from 

 Monterey to Mendocino, is less than one-third of what it was ten years 

 ago. All of this is sufficient evidence to convince the most skeptical 

 that we have only a remnant of our former salmon supply left, and that 

 nothing short of drastic measures will save the small remnant that 

 remains. 



Fir, 39. Mackerel arriving at cannery in southern California. Photograph by 



E. S. Cheney. 



KLAMATH RIVER SALMON 



It is being claimed, by sportsmen mainly, that the salmon run in the 

 Klamath is being destroyed by the commercial salmon fishery on that 

 river. There is also complaint from the same source that the steelhead 

 run is being destroyed by the nets and it is proposed to close the river 

 to commercial fishing. I do not wholly agree with these charges, nor do 

 I agree that the river should be closed to commercial fishing. As the con- 

 ditions on the river, in relation to the commercial fishing, are so gen- 

 erally misunderstood, I propose to review briefly the recent history of 

 the fishery on that river. 



Prior to 1913 the salmon seasons for the Klamath were the seasons 

 adopted for the Sacramento and did not fit and were not enforced. It 

 was lawful to net steelheads on all of our northern streams, as is still 

 the law on most of the streams of Oregon and Washington. In 1913 the 

 present fall salmon season was adopted and the commercial fishing was 

 confined to a tidewater district extending up the river about six miles. 



