Hollister D. McGuire

“ At the spawning period the male fish develops an extravagantly hooked jaw, the color changes to a blood red on the back and to a dark red on the sides. Unlike the Chinook, they do not run in abundance every year, the large runs coming every four years and a lesser run every two years. Ten years ago the species were much more abundant in the Columbia than at present. The year 1894 witnessed the largest run of these fish in that /stream ever known since the inception of the salmon canning industry. ”

“ Taking the entire coast, it is probably more numerous than all the other species combined. It is known on the different coast streams by local names—blueback on the Columbia, sock-eye or saw-qui on Puget Sound and Fraser river, and red fish or red salmon in Alaska. With the exception of the humpback, it is the smallest of the five species, the largest individuals rarely exceeding 10 pounds in the Columbia, and the average weight is about 41⁄2 pounds. In various inland lakes it is much smaller, and weighs about y 2 pound when mature, and is then called the little red fish. ”

“ This deterioration is due entirely to the development of the reproductive organs. As the spawning period approaches the male fish grows thin, his head flattens, the upper jaw curves like a hook over the lower, the eyes become sunken, large, powerful, dog-like teeth appear on both jaws, and the fish acquires a gaunt and savage look. ”

“ After spawning the deterioration is very rapid, the flesh grows pale and they become foul, diseased and very much emaciated; their scales are wholly absorbed in the skin, which is now of a dark olive or black hue; and their heads and bodies are covered with fungus; the skin is worn off in places, and their bodies are bruised from buffeting with the current among the rocks and boulders; their tails and fins
Interior of the Clackamas Salmon Hatchery are frayed and torn and shortly after spawning they die from exhaustion. ”

“ It is also known as hardhead, winter salmon, square-tailed trout and salmon trout. It is, strictly speaking, a trout, but under the laws of Oregon is protected as a salmon. Its spawning season is from February to May. In appearance it greatly differs from any of the regular salmon. It is more slender than the Chinook, and its flesh is light colored. The average weight of the steelhead in the Columbia is about 10 pounds; individuals, however, are sometimes taken weighing as much as 30 pounds. ”

“ None of the various species of trout in the waters of this state have more than 11 rays or ribs in this fin. The Chinook or quinnat (Oncorhynchus tschawytscha) in the Columbia has an average weight of 25 pounds, but individuals have been found occasionally that weighed as much as 85 pounds. David Starr Jordan says that they are occasionally taken weighing 100 pounds. My experience and observation leads me to believe that 85 pounds is the maximum weight of the royal Chinook; 60 and 65-pound individuals are quite common. ”

“ The apparatus employed consists of gill- nets, pound nets, fish wheels, seines, set- nets and dipnets. Of these, gillnet fishing is by far the most important, 3,184 men being thus engaged in taking salmon, using 1,632 gillnets valued at $379,220, and 1,589 boats valued at $219,000. From 60 to 65 per cent of the annual catch is taken by this method. One thousand and ten men are engaged in fishing with wheels, poundnets, seines, setnets, etc., the aggre- gate value of which amounts to $560,000, in all making an industrial army of 4,194 persons engaged in the salmon fishery of the Columbia river. ”

“ The won- derful increase in the fresh-fish trade in- dustry during the past six years, result- ing in an increased demand for steel- heads, has had the effect of raising the value of these fish, until at certain sexsons of the year the fishermen receive a higher price for them than for the Chinook. ”

“ If the com- prehensive law recently enacted by the Oregon legislature is also passed by the Washington law-makers, and then strictly enforced, this great industry will con- tinue to yield its treasures to the Pacific Northwest. ”