SALMON-TAGGING EXPERIMENTS IN ALASKA, 1930 1 
By Willis H. Rich, Ph. D., Professor of Zoology, Leland Stanford Junior University 
CONTENTS 
Page 
Introduction 399 
Experiments near Cape Fox 402 
Experiments near Kasaan Bay 404 
Conclusions 406 
INTRODUCTION 
Two distinct series of tagging experiments were carried out by the Bureau of 
Fisheries during the summer of 1930. The first involved the tagging of 1,994 salmon 
liberated from the traps located in the region of Cape Fox and Sitklan and Kanaganut 
Islands. This was undertaken at the request of the Department of Fisheries of the 
Dominion of Canada and was designed to test the extent to which these traps drew 
upon the salmon runs native to streams in British Columbia. The second series of 
experiments was conducted near the entrance to Kasaan Bay on the eastern coast of 
Prince of Wales Island, southeastern Alaska. One thousand four hundred and ninety- 
five fish were tagged and liberated from traps situated both north and south of the 
entrance to the bay. These experiments were carried out to test the extent to which 
these traps drew on the Kasaan Bay runs and to what extent on runs native to 
streams located elsewhere, the resident purse seiners claiming that the traps caught 
almost exclusively Kasaan Bay fish while the trap operators claimed that the traps 
caught chiefly migratory fish that were passing through Clarence Strait on their way 
to more distant spawning grounds. 
The reader is again referred to the preceeding reports of this series, 2 especially 
that for 1923, for a description of the tags and methods used. 
The actual tagging and the collection of most of the data was carried out in an 
efficient manner by F. W. Hynes, warden, Alaska Service, who tagged approximately 
3,500 salmon between July 13 and August 14. The data were, in part, compiled and 
1 Bulletin No. 11. Approved for publication Mar. 26, 1932. 
2 Second Experiment in Tagging Salmon in the Alaska Peninsula Fisheries Reservation, Summer of 1923, by Charles H. Gilbert 
and Willis H. Rich. Bulletin, U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, Vol. XLII, 1926, Document No. 991, pp. 27-75. Washington. 
Salmon Tagging Experiments in Alaska, 1924 and 1925, by Willis H. Rich. Bulletin, U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, Vol. XLII, 
1926, Document No. 1005, pp. 109-146. Washington. 
Salmon Tagging Experiments in Alaska, 1926, by Willis H. Rich and Arnie J. Suomela. Bulletin, U. S. Bureau of Fisheries 
Vol. XLIII, 1927, Part II, Document No. 1022, pp. 71-104. Washington. 
Salmon Tagging Experiments in Alaska, 1927 and 1928, by Willis H. Rich and Frederick G. Morton. Bulletin, U. S. Bureau 
of Fisheries, Vol. XLV, 1929, Document No. 1057, pp. 1-23. Washington. 
123109-32 399 
