CON FIDENTIAL THE MIGRATION, COMPOSI TIO N, EXPLOITATION AND ABUNDANC E OF ODD-YEAR PINK SALMON RUNS IN AND ADJAC ENT TO THE FRASER RIVER CONVENTION AR EA A Summary of Report s to the Governments of Canada and the United States by the Pink Salmon Co-ordinating Committee to Ful fi ll the Requirements of Article VI of the Pink Salmon Protocol which Amended the Sockeye Salmon Fisheries Convention Effective July 3, 1957 Prepared by Fisheries Research Board of Canada Biol ogical Station, Nanaimo, B. C. June 1965 / FOREWORD This document is a summary of the following two reports submitted to the Governments of Canada and the United States by the Pink Salmon Co-ordinating Committee: (1) The Migration and Exploi tation of Pink Sa lmon Runs in and Adjacent to the Fraser River Convention Area (398 pages, submitted in February 1964 and subsequently published as Bull etin XV of the Inter nationa l Pacific Sa lmon Fisheries Commission). (2) The Migration, Compositi on, Exp l oitation and Abundance of Odd-Year Pink Salmon Runs in and Adjacent to the Fraser River Convention Area ( 218 pages, submitted in April 1965 and subsequently pub l ished as Bul l etin XVII of the International Pacific Sa lmon Fisheries Commission). These reports contain resu l ts of investigations carried out under the direction of the Committee to fulfill the requirements of Article VI of the Pink Sa l mon Protocol whi ch amended the Sockeye Sa l mon Fisheries Convention effective Ju l y 3, 1957. (The first report of the Committee, entitl ed "A Preliminary Review of Pertinent Past Tagging Investigations on Pink Salmon and Proposal for a Co-ordinated Research Program for 1959", was pr eli minary in nature and contains no relevant information not covered in the other two reports.) In this summary, the data emp l oyed, their sources and their analysis are referred to in only a very brief and general way to give the - 2 - reader some concept of the information on which the results were based and of its relative reliabili ty. References to other investigations have been excluded. Only those final results which bear directly upon the protocol problem have been included in any detail, Except for FIGURES 5 and 15, figures and tables are selected from Bulletins XV and XVII with appropriate changes in their numbers. INTRODUCTION Pink salmon spawning in the Fraser River system is limited almost completely to odd-numbered years. These fish are all two years of age, each spawning population made up of progeny of the preceding cycle which hatched and migrated to sea as fry in the spring, spent approximately one and one-half years feeding in the ocean and then returned to spawning streams. Maturing pink salmon migrating to the Fraser River system approach either from the north (vi a Queen Charlotte, Johnstone and Georgia Straits) or from the south (via Juan de Fuca and Georgia Straits - FIGURE 1). On either approach they intermingle with pinks destined for other Canadian streams south of Cape Scott and for United States streams (mainly in the Puget Sound area). The runs on both approaches are subjected first to a troll fishery, then to a series of intensive fisheries (mainly seine) which account for the majority of the catch in most years, and finally to further fisheries (mainl y gillnet) near the mouths of their spawning streams. In recent years, the effectiveness of the fisheries on Fraser-bound pinks has prompted increased restriction on fishing effort. In 1957, Canada - 3 - BRITISH COLUMBIA \ \ I \ I I I' INLET I Thompson Skwawka River , \River I \ I - '\ I I I I I I \ I / Squa,mish I River I I HOWE SOUND I I 11ndlan Rivu I 1 I I Harrison I River I INLET I I CANADA UNITED·­·- STATES -----Stillaguamish River Snohomish River WASHINGTON figure 1. Major geographic locations in the area of study. - 4 - and the United States ratified a protocol to the existing Fraser River salmon treaty to bring the management of pink salmon fisheries in the Fraser Convention waters under international control. Under the terms of this agreement, the International Pacific Salmon Fisheries Commission was charged with scientific investigations and promulgation of regulations for the pink salmon fisheries in the Convention area. In addition, the two countries agreed (Article VI of the Protocol) to conduct a co-ordinated investigation of pink salmon stocks which enter Convention waters for the purpose of determining the migratory movements of such stocks. In general, those portions of the joint program undertaken in the Convention area were carried out by the Salmon Commission while those portions of the program involving Canadian and United States waters outside the Convention area were carried out by the appropriate national agencies. The investigation was conducted in three parts: (1) An extensive and detailed study of the 1959 run; (2) A similar but less thorough study of the 1961 run to assess quantitatively how the 1961 run differed from that in 1959; (3) Examination of information on runs in other years to assess, on a general basis, the extent to which the description of the 1959 run might be applied to other years. The 1959 Run A major field program was conducted on the 1959 run to describe the migration routes, times of passage through the major fishing areas, and - 5 - catches by the individua l f isheries and spawning escapements, for each of the major stock groups whi ch were intermingled wi th Fraser pi nks during migration. Field Prog r am and Analysis Enumeration of Ca tches and Spawners to Provide a Census of the Run Weekly commercial cat ches we re recorded through manda tory sa l es record systems . Catches were a l l ocated to fi shing areas on the basis of suppleme nt ar y information provi ded by fisherme n and fish buyers (TABLE 1, FIGURE 2). Catches by sport fi shermen we r e est imated by the na t iona l agencies from sur veys of numbers of boats and average catches for a sample of f ishermen. Catch in the Indian subsist ence fishery on t he Fraser was estimated by Canadi an Department of Fisheries officers . Pink sa lmon spawned in 157 streams on the mainland of Canada and the United States opposite Vancouver I s l and and on the no rtheast coast of the Island. The abundance of 29 of the larger spawning populations was estimated by t ag and recovery programs. Since s ome tags wo uld have been l ost from the fish, or caused mortality, these estimates must be considered maxima l. Subsequent ana l ysis indicated that even gross over est imates wou l d not appre ciabl y change the genera l description of the ru n and this source of error was not considered serious. Spawning populations in the four other streams were estimated by various modifications of this procedure and we re not considered subject to the s ame deg ree of error. These 33 "large" spawning populations accounted for 96 per cent of the total number of spawners in 1959 , I n estimating spawning populations, over 52,000 pinks were tagged and over 360,000 carcasses subsequent l y - 6 - TABLE 1. Pink salmon catches in the Study Area in 1959, Fishing Area Commercial Sport Total Canadian Study Area west Coast 'i'roll 131,085 131,085 Queen Charlotte Strait 167,551 167,551 Malcolm Island 512,751 512,751 Upper Johnstone Strait 945,989 945,989 Lower Johnstone Strait 530,850 500 531,350 Cortes Island 1,288 1,288 Texada Island 26,498 700 27,198 Comox 6,189 775 6,964 Kingcome Inlet 5,261 5,261 Knight Inlet 119,984 119,984 Phillips Arm 9,978 9,978 Toba Inlet 19,083 19,083 Jervis Inlet 105,533 105,533 Howe Sound 9,813 9,813 Total Canadian Study Area 2,582,040 11,788 2,593,828³ Convention Area Canada WestCoast Troll Co186,296 186,296 Juan de Fuca Strait 1,588,669 15,200 1,603,869 Fraser Gulf 435,727 435,727 Fraser River 102,138 102,138 Fraser River, Indian þÿ18,000 {¹ 18,000 Burrard Inlet 9,812 9,812 Total Canadian Convention Area 2,312,830 43,012 2,355,842 United States West Coast Troll 175,921 175,921 Juan de Fuca Strait 61,598 23,908 85,506 West Beach 77,736 77,736 San Juan Islands 1,338,335 1,894 1,340,279 Point Roberts 773,894 773,894 Total United States Convention Area 2,427,534 25,802 2,453,336 2 Total Convention Area 4,740,364 68,314 4,809,178 U.S. Study Area West Coast Troll 13,427 13,427 Nooksack River 8,106 8,106 Skagit Bay & River 69,425 11,553 80,978 Port Susan-P. Gardner 99,096 2,867 101,963 Admiralty-Puget Sd, 1,315 9,790 11,105 Puyallup River 6,028 6,028 Total United States Study Area 197,397 24,210 221,607 GRAND TOTAL 7,519,801 104,812 7,624,613³ 1 Indian subsistence fishery in Fraser River, 2 Excludes 76 pinks taken by Canadian fishermen and one taken by United States fishermen \lhich were not assigned to area. ³ Includes 2,513 pinks later estimated to have been destined for streams outside the Study Area, CATCHES 0 UNDER 50,000 FISHERIES ON MIXED STOCKS 0 50,000 100,000 A QUEEN CHARLOTTE STRAIT 100,000 -200,000 B MALCOLM ISLAND 0 C UPPER JOHNSTONE STRAIT D LOWER JOHNSTONE STRAIT E CORTES ISLAND 200,000-500,000 FISHERIES ON SINGLE STOCKS F TEXADA ISLAND 0 G COMOX KINGCOME INLET H FRASER GULF 2 KNIGHT INLET I POINT ROBERTS 3 PHILLIPS ARM 500,000 -800,000 J SAN JUAN ISLANDS 4 TOBA INLET K WEST BEACH 5 JERVIS INLET 0 L CANADIAN JUAN DE FUCA 6 FRASER RIVER M U.S.A.