CHIGNIK TO RESURRECTION BAY SALMON STATISTICS 
675 
there came from runs to other places, along the west coast of Kodiak and Afognak 
Islands, and the probability is that the greater movement was toward the streams 
southward as far as Karluk. Especially good catches of reds and pinks were taken 
from 1915 to 1918, but since then the district produced few fish of any species during 
the period covered by this report. Since 1927 there has been renewed activity that 
will be treated in a future report. 
The very peculiar history of the catch of red salmon in Uganik Bay is shown 
graphically in Figure 7. The large catches made in 1926 and 1927 have been ex- 
plained above, and it is the history of the fishery from 1896 to 1920 that is of special 
interest. There apparently have been three periods of relative abundance sepa- 
rated by periods of very low productivity and ending in almost complete elimination 
of the commercial fishery. So far as our records show the catches were entirely 
comparable, but it is extremely difficult to account for such fluctuations on the as- 
sumption that we are here dealing with a single run. The periods of maximum and 
minimum abundance are too widely separated in time to be accounted for as ordi- 
nary cycles of abundance due to 
the influence of dominant age groups 
and the perpetuation of good and 
poor runs, and it seems most un- 
likely that such extreme yet regular 
fluctuations would be due to the in- 
fluence of evironmental conditions. 
The only explanation that can be 
offered is that data are incomplete 
and that these peculiar cycles, if 
they may be so called, are due to 
differences in the conduct of the 
fishery. It seems probable that, as 
the race of Uganik red salmon declined in abundance the fishery changed and took 
fish from other runs, just as the fishery since 1926 has taken Karluk River fish. 
On the other hand the periods of apparent scarcity may have been due to a failure 
to properly report fish actually taken in Uganik Bay. Whatever the true expla- 
nation of these peculiarities in the record, certain facts are quite clear: The run of 
Uganik red salmon was originally one of considerable magnitude and value but 
through exhaustive fishing, probably accompanied by unlawful and destructive 
methods, the run has been so reduced that it is now practically worthless as a 
commercial fishery resource. No natural conditions such as existed at Red and 
Little Rivers operated in favor of the Uganik run ; no ocean surf struck the Uganik 
beaches and storms rarely or never interrupted fishing to give the fish an oppor- 
tunity to enter the stream. Everything was in favor of the fishermen. As in the 
case of Red River, it seems possible by adequate regulations to rehabilitate the run 
here to its former productivity. A counting weir has been operated in Uganik 
River since 1928, and the escapement, although small, seems sufficient as a basis 
on which the run may be built up. The course of this rehabilitation will be watched 
with great interest. 
Rocky Point, Seven Mile Beach, and Shelikof Strait are not localities where 
salmon runs are produced but merely points where salmon traveling to streams 
t/) © to o in o m 
CD O O - — N N 
co o> o <s> o <n <r> 
Figure 7. — Catch of red salmon at Uganik 
