756 
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 
SOCKEYE RIVERS OF THE REGION 
OUTER COAST STREAMS 
In order to determine whether or not one is justified in regarding practically all of 
the sockeyes caught on Swiftsure Bank, in Puget Sound, and in the Gulf of Georgia 
as originating in the Fraser River, it has seemed advisable to show the extent of the 
runs to other sockeye streams in the region and to discuss the probability of any of 
these sockeyes being included in the records as Fraser River fish. 
The largest run of sockeyes on the outer coast, immediately south of Puget Sound, 
is that of the Quinault River, which enters the ocean 65 miles south of Cape Flattery. 
The runs appear to fluctuate from about 50,000 to 500,000 sockeyes, as shown in 
table 25. 
The Indians commence catching a few sockeyes at the mouth of the river as early 
as January, the bulk of the run reaching Quinault Lake between May 20 and July 7, 
and the mode occurring in the week ending June 9. In the 1922-24 runs, for which 
accurate weir counts by the Bureau of Fisheries are available, 77 percent had entered 
the lake by June 30. Of the remaining 23 percent there is reason to suppose that most 
of them were already in the river by this date, as fishing at the mouth of the river is 
usually practically over by July 1. The sockeyes run considerably later, however, on 
Swiftsure Bank, the seiners taking almost none before July 1 and the season not 
reaching its height until early in August. 
Table 25 . — Quinault River sockeye ( blueback ) run, 1908-34 
Year 
Pack in 
cases i 
Actual 
catch 
Escape- 
ment 
Year 
Pack in 
cases 1 
Actual 
catch 
Escape- 
ment 
1908 
» 75, 000 
1921 
2,590 
19, 213 
10, 454 
8, 473 
3,313 
1,729 
5,260 
2, 000 
4, 449 
21, 536 
8, 476 
14, 263 
6, 754 
4, 960 
* 20, 000 
248, 935 
174, 602 
136, 774 
19, 395 
1909 
1922- 
265, 649 
138, 148 
104, 571 
54, 000 
1910. 
4, 350 
2,031 
4, 700 
712 
12, 274 
24, 484 
10, 315 
4, 608 
2, 490 
1,244 
235 
1923 
1911 
1924 
3912- 
1925 
1913 
1926 
1914 
1927 
1915 
3 355, 007 
1928— 
1936 
1929 
1917 
1930 
1918 
1931 
1919 
14, 947 
1932 
1920 
1933 
1934 
> 1910-28 from Cobb (1930, pp. 559-500), 1929-35 from Pacific Fisherman. 
> New York Sun, July 19, 1908. It also states: “This is 27,000 more fish than have ever been caught in any previous season.” 
s From Cobb (1930, p. 426). 
< Only 11,786 counted, balance estimated. 
The Ozette River (fig. 1) empties into the ocean 12 miles south of Cape Flattery. 
The Bureau of Fisheries placed a weir across this river in 1926, discovering that the 
run, which is nearly over by July 1, amounted to only a few thousand fish. 
The Hobarton River empties into Nitinat Inlet, which reaches the ocean just 
north of the entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The Nitinat Inlet sockeye catch 
is given in the Fisheries Reports of the Dominion of Canada as follows: 12,000 in 
1928, 20,130 in 1930, 16,487 in 1931, and 56,000 in 1932. 
Barclay Sound, (fig. 1) a little farther to the north, has two runs of sockeyes, 
one ascending the Anderson River, which is 18 miles from Cape Beale, and the other 
the Somass River at the head of Alberni Canal, a northeasterly extension of Barclay 
Sound that cuts deeply into Vancouver Island. 
