Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1920-10-15

WASHINGTON, FRIDAY, OCTOl
fishermen the first chance to capture
them, there has naturally arisen con-
siderable contention between the
Canadian Dominion and British Col
umbia provincial govrnments on the
one hand and the fishing interests Of
the state of Washington on the other.
Canadians have always claimed
that they are Matching fish for state
of Washington fishermen. and the
failure Of all efforts to agree upon
mutually satisfactory regulations has,
to say the least, not increased the
enthusiasm Of the Canadian authori-
tie for greater hatchery propagation
work.
"The sockeye differs from all other
salmon species. in that he is the only
one that remains in fresh water until
the spring of the second year of his
existence before seeking the salt water
and while the fishery experts have
been forced to admit that the ChinoQk
salmon run Of the Columbia river has
been restored by hatchery work. they
have never been ready to cOncede
equal success to hatchery methods in
British Columbia and Alaska as re-
CARDS the sockeye.
"The state Of Washington has not
engaged in sockeye propagation tor
the reason that the sockeye have here
tofore only entered one American
stream, viz, the Skagit rivr. The u.
S. Bureau of Fisheries conducts a
hatchery which takes the eggs of all
the sockeye which ascend the Skagit.
The Fisheries Department of the state
of Washington, prior to the expert
ment from which resulted tho run of
sockeye in the Samish river this year,
had taken no part whatever in the
effort to aid in the work of restoring
or maintaining the sockeye run Of
Puget Sound.
Confronted by the conditions
above set out and Of a steadily de-
creasing run of this species Of salmon,
in 1915 We conducted an experiment
to ascertain II the Fraser river sock
eye could not be successfully trans
planted to Amrican streams and prop
agated in them.
I'VE made arrangements with E.
B. Deming. of the Pacific American
Fisheries Company. for use Of certain
Of their traps located on the west
shore of Lummi island. IA miles dis
tant from the mouth of the Samish
river. Crates or live boxes we're con-
structcd, in which the sockeyes we're
lowed those II miles to the mouth of
the river, where a rack was erected to
prevent their return to salt water.
The fish were liberated into the river
without being touched by human
hands, and they promptly assembled 1t
some 10 or IL miles, where they were
stopped by racks erected in the
stream near our Samish hatchery
Here the fish were held from three tC
seven weeks while they 'ripened.' IA
the result of this experiment we Sc
cured 1.2S7,00O eggs. These we
Matched at our Samish hatchery and
the resulting fry were placed in Lake
Samish, as werc also those Of 1917
and 1918. The reason for the liber-
alton Of the fry into a lake was that
the sockeye will only enter stream
to spawn whose source is q lake.
Because of the sockeye's pecd-
liarities I had hardly dared to hope
that we could secure the return Of
this species to the Samish river. We
would have been entirely satisfied II
we could have contributed to the In
crease in the size Of the run and to
have let those which escapd the ASH
ermen return to the Fraser to spawn
1.-THE sockeye pack this year Is
some 20 to 30 per cent greater than
last year. although not % great AZ
four years ago. 1t Is much greater
however, than was anticipated. fol
we expected It to be the highest on
record, and there were much
smaller number Of appliances en-
gagged in their taking this year than
any year In the past 20.
ut may not be unreasonable
therefore, to suppose that the in.
creased run this year may be in some
small part attributable to our Sam
ish hatchery experiment of foul
years ago, for sockeyes are four
year fish, and our first return from
our 1916 experiment was due this
year.
1.-THE work of replacing our racks
| hxyt 81