SOUTHEASTERN ALASKA SALMON STATISTICS 
627 
The condition of a fishery such as this is necessarily gaged primarily by the com- 
mercial catch of salmon and not by the number of fish that ascend the streams. If 
the catch remains fairly constant year after year without increased fishing effort, the 
fishery may be regarded as stable and balanced. An increased escapement without 
change in other conditions would mean larger runs, but when both the escapement and 
the catch decline steadily with an increased fishing effort there can be little doubt that 
the fishery is being depleted. That seems to have been the state of the Ernest Sound 
pink-salmon fishery at the end of 1927. 
The catch of cohos in Ernest Sound shows, in general, a gradual increase through- 
out the period 1896-1927. The greatest recorded catch was made in 1912 but in spite 
of this and a very good catch in 1910 it is apparent that the trend has been upward and 
that the catches during the last decade herein considered have averaged well above 
those of the earlier years. This is due doubtless to the fact that the main run of 
cohos comes later in the season than the run of any other species so that, as the demand 
has increased, it has been easy to meet it by extending the period during which fishing 
is actively carried on. 
BEHM CANAL DISTRICT 
The Behm Canal district (see fig. 47) covers all the waters of the canal and its trib- 
utaries inside of a line across the northern entrance from Cape Caamano to Point 
Higgins and a line across the southern entrance from Point Alava to a point on the 
mainland shore 2 miles south of Point Sykes. The canal is a narrow body of water 
167814—33 13 
