SALMON AND SALMON FISHERIES OF SWIFTSURE BANK 
695 
Waters of the State of Washington and British Columbia,” by Richard Rathbun, has 
this region been considered as an entity. 
The region is of considerable extent, including that portion of the high seas in 
the vicinity of Swiftsure Bank, the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and the narrow inland sea, 
over 200 miles in length, formed by Puget Sound and the Gulf of Georgia (see fig. 1). 
Of the numerous tributary streams, only the Fraser River penetrates the Coast Range 
into the interior. Many shorter rivers, however, such as the Skagit, Snohomish, and 
Squamish on the mainland, and the Cowichan and Nanaimo Rivers on Vancouver 
Island, together with a host of smaller streams, also furnish spawning grounds for 
the salmon of these waters. 
THE PACIFIC SALMONS 
The Pacific salmons (genus Oncorhynchus ) inhabiting this region, like the At- 
lantic salmon ( Salmo solar ) and the steelhead trout ( Salmo gairdneri), spend varying 
lengths of time in fresh water after hatching, before descending to the sea where 
most of their growth is attained. They differ from the Atlantic salmon and the 
steelhead in that all of the adults, upon returning to fresh water, die shortly after 
spawning. The adult salmon, returning from the ocean to spawn in the streams 
from whence they came, form the object of intensive fisheries on Swiftsure Bank, 
among the inlets and islands of Puget Sound, the Gulf of Georgia, and in the estuary 
and lower reaches of the Fraser River. 
This region has five species of Pacific salmon: The sockeye ( Oncorhynchus nerlca), 
known as the red salmon in Alaska and as the blueback on the Skagit, Quinault, and 
Columbia Rivers; the coho or silver salmon ( 0 . kisutch), also known as the silverside; 
the king or spring salmon ( 0 . tschawytscha) , known as the chinook on the Columbia 
River and the quinnat on the Sacramento River; the pink or humpback salmon 
( 0 . gorbuscha) ; and the chum or dog salmon ( 0 . keta), also called keta or fall salmon. 
In addition to the confusing array of names given above, the immature king salmon 
are often called blackmouth, a term which is also sometimes applied to immature 
cohos. In the Gulf of Georgia the immature cohos taken early in their third summer 
are termed bluebacks. 
In size the pinks are the smallest, averaging around 4 pounds. The sockeyes 
average under 6 pounds, the cohos about 7-8 pounds, and the chums about 9 pounds. 
The kings are by far the largest, averaging about 22 pounds, with occasional indi- 
viduals of 60 pounds and upwards. 
The pink salmon are unique in that they appear in abundance over the greater 
part of this region during the odd-numbered years, whereas only a few thousand are 
taken in the even-numbered years. 
FISHING DISTRICTS 
The region may be roughly divided into fishing districts, not only geographically, 
but also in accordance with the types of gear used and the abundance of the various 
species. Swiftsure Bank is unique in that the vast majority of the cohos and kings 
caught by trolling are taken there. Here the purse seiners meet the incoming schools 
of pinks, cohos, and sockeyes that are bound for the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and 
