168 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
The necessity of concurrent action on the part of tlie States occupying the Colnin- 
bia Ei^'er Basin, and of their cordial cooperation in measures necessary to maintain 
the salmon fishery of the Columbia Eiver and to improve it, is e\ddent from a con- 
sideration of the facts presented. The investigations of the U. S. Fish Commission in 
the Columbia Biver Basin made under the instructions of Congress clearly indicate 
that there is a serious deterioration in the product and value of the salmon fisheries 
of this river; that this deterioration is to be attributed in large part, if not entirely, to 
the exclusion of the salmon from their spawniug-gronnds by the operations of the net 
fishermen, and that artificial propagation on an adequate scale to compensate for the 
waste of the fisheries is no longer possible under existing conditions of the fisheries. 
The initial step in attempting the restoration of the salmon fishery is to restrict 
and regulate the net fishing. The restriction that may be put in force with the least 
hardship to the fishermen is the shortening of the season of net fishing. 
The use of pounds, gill nets, traps, and seines in the lower river, from the Cascades 
to the mouth, should be limited strictly to the months of May, June, and July. The 
wheels should not be ])ermitted to take salmon prior to the middle of May, so as to 
permit the salmon which have entered tire river in April the opportunity to pass up 
to the head waters. A further closed season for wheels should be established from 
the 1st of August to the 10th of September, so as to irrovide for the uninterrupted 
spawning of the August run of salmon. There does not at present appear sufficient 
reason to prohibit the wheel fishing during the balance of September and during the 
month of October. Protection for the salmon which have thus been enabled to reach 
their spawning-grounds should be aftbrded by a close season during the months of 
September and October, covering the streams in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho to 
which the salmon resort for breeding. 
Should the policy above outlined be adopted by these States and the requisite 
measures to carry it into etfect be enacted and enforced, it will be possible for the U. S. 
Fish Commission and the State commissions to greatl 3 ^ enlarge their fish-cultural 
operations, and to prosecute them under much more satisfactory and economical con- 
ditions than at the present time. Until the States interested adopt measures to 
restrain net fishing, so as to ]iermit a portion at least of the salmon entering the river 
to ]>ass up to their spawning-gronnds, it is not deemed wise or expedient to attempt 
to increase or extend the work of artificial propagation of the salmon. 
All efforts will be disapjioiuting, unprofitable, and nugatorj^ so long as the fisheries . 
continue under existing conditions, and I would recommend, therefore, that no further 
steps be taken at present looking to the establishment of additional salmon-breeding 
stations in the Columbia Eiver Basin. 
Marshall McDonald, 
U. is. Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries. 
