White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1928-08-17
FIND SALMON DOMAIN
COVERS WIDE RANGE
Experts Study Habits of
Popular Food Fish.

AuaCOrleS, WaSn.-Wneu you eat
salmon this summer you may wonder
whence comes this food fish. 1t Is
still a question mark. Salmon life In
the Pacific ocean is still a mystery.
How does the salmon fry find Its
way to the feeding grounds in the salt
sea? Where does it learn to return
again to the parent stream, or one
contiguous thereto, as it has been
proved many of them do? Where are
these feeding grounds of the vast sill
yer hordes that core up yearly in
summer from their home in the deep?
How far do they travel, going or COM
ing? What do they live upon?
No one knows, exactly, but some
facts have been ascertained.
The salmon domain is almost meal
culable in its immensely. They range
all the way from Monterey, Calf, as
far northward as the Arctic circle and
even as far easterly on the top of the
world as the Mackenzie river on the
American side and from Japan to the
northernmost streams Of Siberia on
the Asiatic seaboard Of the Pacific.
1t is generally believed that the young
Of salmon lay off the continental pla-
teau to a depth Of about 100 fathoms
and find their feeding grounds there.
Food a Mystery.
Just what they feed on never has
been ascertained, but the king and a
few species Of salmon when the old
home movement is at it's zenith
shortly before they reach the river
mouths-will snap at a spoon troll
with avidity. Trolling for these big
fish is an industry along the coast from
Seward, Alaska, to the Columbia river.
With the exception Of those caught
near the confluence Of the rivers with
salt water, salmon-like shad, herring,
mackerel and other migratory fishes
are never found at sea. They just
vanish.
When salmon fry go to sea that is
the last seen of them. But when the
onshore invasion of mature salmon
commence it begins to the westward
along the Aleutian islands, because
there they are found and netted early
in May. Canning companies in operat-
ing floating canneries plan to leave
port in time to reach the northern
haunts of salmon and take some of the
first Corners. They are fat, heavy and
we'll meated.
The large thirty-pound king salmon
come first and are followed by the
sockeye, or red salmon. Soon after they
appear in Cooks inlet near Anchorage,
then in Prince William sound off Brit
ish Columbia. Along the coast from
June to July, salmon appear in regu-
lar cycles of various species. In Au-
gust, Puget sound, the Fraser river
and other streams are filled with the
rushing salmon trying to reach spawn
ing grounds. The Columbia river Is
the last of the fishing streams to get
salmon runs.
Check Their Return.
By tagging six or eight-inch salmon
fry before releasing them from hatch
cries the fisheries bureau has been
able to check the return Of many spe-
cies of these fish. Even in midocean
an occasional tagged salmon has been
taken in herring or mackerel nets, but
little light has been added to it's life
of three to four years absence.
| Most salmon experts believe the
Alaska and west. coast fish are en-.
dowed with a sense the human does
not possess. Their theory is that when
the off-shore movement commences
salmon scent fresh water from afa1
and follow the scent until either they
enter the stream Of their nativity OF
one very close to it.
A distinct difference between the
Atlantic and Pacific salmon is that the
former after spawning in fresh water
returns to the sea, while the Pacific
salmon, after making arrangements for
myriad reproduction Of it's kind,
dies. Once it leaves its feeding
grounds in the salt water salmon takes
no food, and in fact, it is believed to
become incapable Of eating. On rare
occasions, male silver salmon will take
trout fly and steel head salmon will
bite at salmon eggs in late winter.
Elaborate plans are being worked
out along the Pacific coast fishing
ports, sponsored by the fisheries bu
reau, for more accurate knowledge o.
salmon.