SALMON AND SALMON FISHERIES OF SWIFTSURE BANK 
805 
numbered year, destroyed this up-river run. In the even-numbered years no pink 
salmon spawn in Puget Sound streams or in the Fraser River, although a few thousand 
are usually caught north of Deception Pass. Most of these pinks are probably bound 
to the streams in the northern end of the Gulf of Georgia, which have pink runs in both 
odd- and even-numbered years. 
The pink-salmon fry, upon emerging from the gravel, migrate at once to the sea, 
which permits great numbers to propagate in streams that might be unsuitable for the 
support of large numbers of young fish. 
Recently evidence has been gathered on the homing instinct in pink sahnon. 
Pritchard (1934) in an experiment at McClinton Creek, Masset Inlet, in which 108,000 
fry were marked by clipping of fins before being liberated, recovered 3,285 when they 
returned from the sea as adults. Of this total, over 3 percent of the number marked, 
only 7 fish were taken outside of the Queen Charlotte Islands, and 2,950 were recap- 
tured in the same creek. Davidson (1934) in an earlier experiment marked 50,000 
pink fry at Olive Cove, Alaska. Twenty-three marks were recovered there from 7,944 
adult salmon dipped over the counting weir. Since 10,640 of the run were not 
examined for scars the total number of marked fish in the run was calculated as 54. 
MIGRATION 
Information is scarce on the migrations of pink salmon in the region. Pritchard 
(1930) tagged 205 pinks in Johnstone Strait in 1928. All of the recoveries were made 
in local streams. In 1929 the experiment was repeated (Pritchard, 1932) and out of 
468 tagged in the same area 37 were recovered, 20 in the Fraser River, and 1 at West 
Beach, W T hidbey Island. None were recaptured farther to the north than the point of 
tagging. The difference between the 1928 and 1929 results was quite as expected, 
since Puget Sound and the Fraser River support a tremendous run of pinks in the 
odd-numbered years, but almost none in the even-numbered years. The recoveries 
show that a fair share of the run to this region may ordinarily come around the north 
end of Vancouver Island. 
Pink salmon were also tagged in 1929 from the traps at Sooke. Out of 185 
released there were 14 recoveries, 1 at the point of tagging, 6 in Puget Sound waters 
(3 from north of Deception Pass), and 7 in the Fraser River. 
METHOD AND LOCALITY OF CAPTURE 
The Swiftsure Bank-Puget Sound-Fraser River pink salmon catch from 1925-34 
amounts to 52,240,000 fish, excluding Vancouver Island and the Gulf of Georgia for 
which sufficient data are not at hand (see table 47). Previous to 1925 data are lacking 
on the Swiftsure Bank catch or of the amounts canned on the Fraser River that were 
not shipped in from other districts. 
