The Wrangell sentinel., 1936-03-27
Notes On PACIFIC SALMON
By H. H. HUNGERFORD

At the request of the Sentinel H. H. Hungerford. connected with Pacific coast fisheries for the past 35 years, and who recently accept ed the position of general manager of the WraEgelI Cold Storage Comp any, has prepared a series of in- formative articles on Pacific salmon the first of which follows:
 The Salmon at Sea
 Pacific salmon live in the North Pacific ocean along the coasts from California in the west. to the north ern Chinese and Japanese coast iE the east Are to be found in the bays and sounds generally when young Occasionally they come in when nearly mature when in pur- suit of food Their main habit4l is the open ocean inside the loo fathom curve, an area of tremend- ous extent No doubt at times they range to considerable distance off shore following food bearing cur rents. as in the Gulf of Alaska where there is an eddy from east to west north of the Japanese cur rent. It is doubtful that Behrilg sea has other than summer pOpu- lation of salmon
 There is no exact knowledge of the movements of salmon at sea, but reason tells us that as they have nothing to do but seek their food and avoid their enemies they are where their fayorite food is most abundant, avoiding their enemies IS best they can. Until mature their movements must be guided by these factors.
 As on dry land, so is the land under the sea. It's fertile fields of vegetation furnish abundant food for a myraid of forms of life, it's waste lands and rocky depths fur nishing food in diminishing quan- titles. The continental shelf rough iy approximated by the 100-fatholn curve furnishes the fertile fields of aquatic vegetation that nourish the majority of forms of life which in turn constitute fish food in quan- ities sufficient to feed the multi tude of fishes of economic import ance.
 Different from land animals who ire largely vegetarians, the fish Of the sea are mostly carnivorous, In most instances if they get the op- portunity they will eat those of their own kind who are not nimble enough to escape and who are small enough 10 be swallowed. Owing to their body structure salmon are not capable of descending very deep in the water, or eating the vegetable forms of life but must prey on others who do eat vegetable forms and then later frequent levels in the sea available to the salmon. The copepods, a general term for null titude of shrimp-like forms, most of whom are very small, furnish the bulk of salmon food, both dir ectly and indirectly, as they are also the principal food of herring and other small fish and who are, in turn, the principal food of several varities of salmon
 According to authorities on diet cities, salmon must eat enormous quantities of food each day. In fact, to enable them to make their normal growth to maturity within their limited life span, they must eat an equivalent to several times their own weight each day No doubt, this at times is impossible owing to unfavorable conditions at sea. The fishermen often wonde:s what happened to the salmon who were spawned so plentifully in previous years, when they do not survive to return in numbers at least equal to the escapement into the streams. Insufficient food at sea is one of the most important factors, and one over which man has no control.