reckless is the fishery being prosecuted that it is 

 not difficult to vision its ultimate and fatal deple- 

 tion. 



In the year of 1914 a shipment of Sockeye 

 eggs was received at the Somers Hatchery, lo- 

 cated on the west shore of Flathead Lake. A per- 

 centage of the hatched Salmon from this ship- 

 ment found their way into the waters of Flathead 

 Lake and since that time have shown a steady in- 

 crease. Their presence in the lake was known 

 to very few people for many years, and it was 

 not until the last seven or eight years that the gen- 

 eral public became aware that they were inhabit- 

 ing these waters in such large numbers. The fa- 

 vored spawning areas are located principally on 

 the east shore of the lake, where many of the 

 mountain streams end the last of their tumultuous 

 ■journey by flowing through large gravel beds 

 rimming the shores. Here the salmon congregate 

 in large numbers to complete their spawning ac- 

 tivities, which concludes the life cycle of this spe- 

 cies and it is here that the general public con- 

 gregate in an equally desperate effort to prevent 

 the completion of this cycle. The methods prac- 

 ticed by many bring home with a glaring clarity 

 the procedure that must have been used on our 

 once abundant forms of other animal life, such 

 as the buffalo and the wild pigeon, and which 



has relegated them to near or complete extinc- 

 tion. There has been concern expressed by many 

 that the salmon would become too abundant and 

 exclude all other species, but it con safely be pre- 

 dicted that if the present method of capture and 

 take are allowed to continue it will be a matter of 

 relatively few years before the stock is depleted 

 and they will also be mere history, with these 

 same individuals expressing concern as to when 

 they will again return. 



However, an important point is the great 

 possibility that now exists to strike a higher and 

 more concentrated balance in all forms of or- 

 ganic and vegetable matter existing in that body 

 cf water. These many forms of organic matter, 

 such as the zooplankton Crustacea which are 

 the principal food of all young trout fry are 

 directly dependent upon the amount of organic 

 material available, and they can increase 

 only through the introduction of organic matter, 

 and that is exactly the transformation that is tak- 

 ing place in that body of water today. These large 

 number of salmon which spawn each fall, and 

 then through the competion of nature's mission 

 all die, are contributing vast amounts of organic 

 material. A great fertilization program is being 

 carried out at absolutely no cost to any depart- 

 ment or agency. (Please turn to page 92). 



Natives and Dolly 



Varden trout taken 



from riathead 



Lake. 



