10 



PACIFIC FISHERMAN 



Perpetuating the Pacific Coast Salmon Fisheries 



THE salmon run of 1909 was certainly a great 

 one for the State of Washington and set a 

 mark that few thought would ever be 

 equaled. The run of Sockeyes exceeded all expec- 

 tations and the great run* of Humpbacks completed 

 one of the greatest seasons ever experienced on 

 the Puget Sound. The run of Chinook salmon on 

 the Columbia river was good and the run of 

 Chinook and Silver Side salmon on Grays and 

 Willapa Harbors were record breakers. However, 

 during the season just past more salmon were 

 packed in the State of Washington than ever be- 

 fore. While the run of Sockeyes was not large 

 the great run of Humpbacks and a good run of 

 Silver Sides enabled the canneries to put up a 

 record breaking pack on the Puget Sound. Grays 

 Harbor experienced a great run of Chinook and 

 Silver Side salmon and the pack of Willapa 

 Harbor was fair. The Columbia river pack was 

 the largest in many years. Therefore, the salmon 

 season of 1911 showed more canned, i)ickled, 

 smoked and consumed fresh than in any year since 

 the packing of salmon first began in the year of 

 1866. 



The fishing industry of the State of Washington 

 is second only to the lumber industry and while 

 the attention of the whole country has been called 

 to the conservation of our forests, coal supply and 



By JOHN M. CRAWFORD 



Washington State Superintendent of Hatcheries. 



grounds, it will be only a matter of time until 

 this species of salmon will have become nearly 

 extinct. 



While the year 1911 was a great one for the 

 salmon packers and fishermen, it must be borne 

 in mind that without the enormous run of the 

 once despised Humpbacks, the season would have 

 been a very lean one on the Puget Sound. The 

 large run of the Chinook salmon in the Columbia 

 river during the season of 1911 proved to all who 

 take an interest in matters of this kind that the 

 hatcheries are the salvation of the salmon in- 

 dustry. 



To those who have watched the rearing pond 

 system and the feeding of the young fry for the 

 past four or five years at the hatcheries tributary 

 to the Columbia river, it has been made very 

 plain that no matter what it costs it is a proper 

 system and it should be followed out at all hatch- 

 eries where sufficient land for the building of 

 ponds and a good water supply can be obtained. 

 At plants where conditions are unfavorable for 

 the building of ponds, the eyed eggs should be 

 shipped to favorable points, and there hatched 

 and the young salmon Irept and fed until they are 

 large enough to escape the trout and their other 

 natural enemies. 



During the fall of 1911 the Columbia river was 



Tountr Salmon Can^lit in Fueret Sound and Sold as Salmon Trout. 



water powers, very little interest has been taken 

 in the conservation of our salmon by the public 

 terest should be taken in the preservation of this 

 industry. 



While the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, the State 

 of Oregon and our own state have been doing 

 splendid work in the matter of propagating the 

 different species of salmon that frequent the 

 waters of the Puget Sound, Willapa Harbor, Grays 

 Harbor and the Columbia river, this work has 

 had only the support of those directly interested 

 in the fishing business. 



It is very true that the cannery men, cold stor- 

 age companies, men engaged in salting and selling 

 fish fresh and the fishermen are more interested 

 in this work than are the public at large. It is 

 also true that when this matter is looked into 

 carefully it will be found that it vitally concerns 

 almost every citizen in this state, and if this in- 

 dustry is to be perpetuated and placed on a safe 

 basis, the same interest must be taken by the 

 farmer, merchant, laborer and the professional 

 man as is taken by those directly interested in 

 the catching and packing of the fish. 



The year 1909 was a big one for the Sockeye 

 salmon. This large run of Sockeye comes every 

 four years. However, unless more interest is 

 taken and more real effort made to allow a suffi- 

 cient number of these fish to reach their spawning 



full of rearing pond salmon making their way to 

 the ocean. The rearing pond work started by 

 the Honorable Henry S. McGowan of Chinook, 

 Washington, has begun to show results and if 

 enough breeding salmon are allowed to reach their 

 spawning streams where hatcheries are estab- 

 lished and where rearing ponds are installed, the 

 future of the Columbia river as a producer of 

 Chinook salmon is assured. The natural spawn- 

 ing streams tributary to the Columbia river above 

 the Dalles have been nearly all destroyed by the 

 irrigating ditches and the large returns of 1911 

 are due to the hatcheries situated on streams 

 tributary to the Willamette river and to those 

 tributary to the Columbia river below the Dalles. 

 Enough salmon have reached the upper tributaries 

 of the Columbia to have made the returns greater, 

 but the majority of the young salmon hatched in 

 these streams have been destroyed by the irrri- 

 gating ditches. 



While it has been claimed by some fish cultur- 

 ists that the young Sockeye or Blue Hack salmon 

 do not go to the ocean until nearly a year old 

 the same fact is true of other species of salmon 

 that are propogated in the mountain streams near 

 the head waters of the Columbia river. 



A photo that accompanies this article if looked 

 at carefully will show many young salmon that 

 will measure three inches or more in length. At 



IiOg-glngr Dam Witli ITo Flshway. — This Dam Has 

 Since Been Frovided Witb a Fishway. 



the same time this photo will give an idea of the 

 enormous destruction of the young salmon by the 

 irrigating ditches in the tributaries of the Co- 

 lumbia river east of the mountains. 



A large irrigating ditch has many lateral ditches 

 that distribute the water over a large area of 

 farming and fruit lands. These young salmon 

 shown in the photo were taken from one lateral 

 ditch within a distance of less than two hundred 

 feet, the main ditch being one of the smallest 

 taken from the Methow river. Another photo 

 that accompanies this article shows a string of 

 trout and more small salmon that are taken from 

 another lateral ditch tributary to the Methow 

 river. 



Tributary to the Yakima, Wenatchee, Okanogan 

 and San Poll rivers and other streams east of 

 the mountains tributary to the Columbia river 

 there are thousands of these ditches and these 

 pictures will give some Idea of the loss of the 



Fiahway Installed In Power Dam. 



