Clipping a ventral fin from a wild silver salmon fingerling. Note the bobbinet glove covering 



the thumb and two fingers of the marker. 



to the hatchery and after the salmon had been marked, they would be 

 released in some stream with an adequate flow of water. 



The recoveries of marked salmon which were from the 1949 brood 

 year kings should reach their peak in 1953. However, there were a few 

 returns of two-year-olds in 1951, and large quantities of returns of three- 

 year-olds in 1952. It should be possible to make a fairly comprehensive 

 analysis of the mark returns of 1949 brood year salmon after the 1952 

 season. Additional analyses of this brood year will be required for the 

 1953 and 1954 returns. 



In order to obtain reliable figures of the proportion of marked fish in 

 the ocean catch, the Department of Fish and Game has had samplers 

 examining the salmon catch in key fishing ports from Crescent City to 

 Monterey, and in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River fisheries. These men 

 keep records of the numbers of unmarked fish seen, and the numbers 

 of fish with each different mark seen. Scales are taken from all marked 

 fish recovered, and each such fish is measured. The number and weight 

 of fish landed is determined for as many boat landings as is feasible. 

 Length frequency samples are taken at frequent intervals. Scale samples 

 are taken for an age analysis of the salmon. 



Floods and Droughts 



A great deal of damage was done to the Central Valley salmon runs 

 by the floods of November, 1950. Many rivers were swollen torrents dur- 

 ing the peak of the salmon spawning season. The fish spawned near the 

 edges of these streams in order to avoid the excessively fast and deep 

 water near midstream. When the floods receded, tens of thousands of 



