Salmon, America’s Most Valuable Fish 
By HUGH M. SMITH 
Former United States Commissioner of Fisheries 
T he answer to the question, What 
are the most important fishes in 
American waters? is likely to vary 
with the geographical distribution of the 
persons addressed. 
The average citizen who lives within 
the sphere of influence of the sacred 
fish effigy hanging in the Massachusetts 
State-house will undoubtedly name the 
Cod and its allies that frequent the in¬ 
shore waters and the great submerged 
“banks” lying off the coasts of New Eng¬ 
land, and British maritime provinces, and 
Newfoundland. 
From the Hudson to the St. Johns, a 
primary vote would probably favor the 
Shad and Herrings among river fishes, 
and the Bluefish and Squeteague among 
marine species. 
Along the 1,700 miles of low-lying 
coast that extends from Key West to the 
Rio Grande, the fishermen and the fish¬ 
eating public can hardly conceive of any¬ 
thing more important in the way of food 
fish than the Mullets and Snappers. 
Throughout the Great Lakes the White- 
fishes, Trouts, and Pike Perches are so 
abundant and support such extensive 
fisheries that they would undoubtedly be 
awarded front rank by millions of people 
in the States abutting on these waters. 
EACH SECTION FOR ITS OWN FISH 
In the vast region drained by the Mis¬ 
sissippi and its tributaries, such homely 
species as the Catfishes and Buffalo-fishes 
attain their greatest development, and 
originally contributed more than any 
others to the income of the fishermen and 
the food supply of a score of States; but 
these natives have now been supplanted 
by an Asiatic alien which, having re¬ 
ceived a course of cultivation in Ger¬ 
many, came to our shores because of 
inducements held out by our government, 
and now, under the inaccurate name of 
German carp, has become the most im¬ 
portant inhabitant of our interior waters. 
Finally, practically every person on the 
Pacific seaboard will, without hesitation 
or fear of contradiction, assign the fore¬ 
most place among fishes to the salmons, 
which, entering every stream from Gold¬ 
en Gate to Bering Strait, constitute the 
most conspicuous element of the fish life. 
The last estimate is the correct one, 
for the Pacific salmons are the most 
valuable fishes not only of the United 
States, but also of the entire western 
hemisphere, and, with the smgle excep¬ 
tion of the sea herrings, are commercially 
the leading fishes of the world. 
THE FIVE SPECIES OF PACIFIC SALMONS 
The Pacific salmons constitute a dis¬ 
tinct group, closely resembling the At¬ 
lantic salmon, but separated by marked 
anatomical and physiological peculiarities. 
There are five distinct species, which, 
having many characters in common, 
nevertheless differ strikingly in size, 
color, habits, distribution, food value, and 
economic importance. All of the species 
occur on the California coast (to San 
Francisco Bay or a little farther south), 
and range thence to the far north, cross¬ 
ing to Siberia and reaching southward 
into Kamchatka, while three of them ex¬ 
tend to Japan. 
These fishes were first christened in . a 
scientific way by the German physician 
Walbaum, who, in 1792, invested them 
with the vernacular names by which they 
were known among the Russians. The 
rules of nomenclature require that these 
names be retained, and hence these beau¬ 
tiful creatures must bear for all time 
such outlandish names as kisutch and 
tschawytscha. It was as late as 1861 that 
Dr. George Suckley, the naturalist of the 
Pacific Railroad Survey, recognizing the 
generic distinctness of these fishes from 
the ordinary salmons {Sal 7 no)y gave 
them for the first time a clan name of 
their own, OncorhynchuSy meaning hook 
snout. 
The largest of the genus, and the most 
magnificent of all the salmons, is the 
Chinook, Quinnat, King, Spring, or Tyee 
salmon. It has an average weight of 
