Abstract
Columbia River Salmon THE Stanford Ichthyological Bulletin (2, No. 6; Dec. 1943), published by the Natural History Museum of Stanford University, contains a paper by John C. Marr on "Age, Length, and Weight Studies of Three Species of Columbia River Salmon (Onchorhynchus keta, O. gorbuscha and O. kisutch)", being Contrib. No. 9, Department of Research, Fish Commission of Oregon. The salmon runs of the Columbia River have held an important place in the economic structure of Oregon and Washington since the beginning of their exploitation in the 1860's. The fishing intensity has increased constantly and the reduction of spawning areas, brought about by the construction of dams and other developments of water resources, have acted unfavourably to modify natural conditions and the productivity of the fisheries. In the genus Onchorhynchus the most important commercially is the chinook salmon O. tschawytscha; the next in importance are the steelhead Salmo gairdneri, the blueback Onchorhynchus nerka, the silver salmon 0. kisutch and the chum O. keta, while the pink salmon O. garbuscha is not sufficiently numerous to be of commercial importance. As the runs of the chinook and blueback which ascend to the higher reaches of the river system are seriously depleted, the trend of the catch of silvers and chums has been upward in recent years due to an increased fishing intensity. Since they spawn in the lower tributaries they have suffered relatively less from the destruction of spawning beds. Thus they will probably become increasingly important in the commercial fishery, and their life-histories are now being thoroughly investigated. The present work deals in detail mainly with the age, length and weight of Onchorhynchus keta and O. kisutch. It is demonstrated that, in comparison with data from other localities, in both from south to north there is a decrease in mean length at the same age; older fish are progressively more abundant and the runs are progressively earlier.
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Research Items. Nature 154, 435–436 (1944). https://doi.org/10.1038/154435a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/154435a0