MATURITY OF SALMON

Hokitika Guardian, 10 January 1929, Page 3

MATURITY OF SALMON

CANADIAN CONTROVERSY.

VANCOUVER, December 12

A controversy on the age and maturity of salmon lias been raging in the Press here. It arose out of statements by Mr Alexander S. Millar, of Smithers, Stikine River, that sockeye required eight years to mature. It is generally accepted that Fraser River salmon mature in' four years. Further north, at Naas River, the bulk mature at five years. Further north still, in the Karluk River, Alaska, a large proportion mature at six years. Fncli stream furnishes its own problem.

Knowledge of the four-year cycle on the Fraser River is based on two outstanding facts. First, the examination of scales of thousands of sockeye each year, over a period of seventeen years, has established beyond a doubt that approximately 75 per cent, of the fish appearing in the Fraser are four years old. Second yearling sockeye, at the commencement of their seaward migration have been marked by clipping fins; these marked fish have returned in their fourth year. These two facts are confirmed by Wilbert Clemens. Director of the Biological Board of Canada, whose headquarters are in British Columbia. 'Die most conclusive tests have just been completed by Dr. R. E. Forester, of the Biological Board. He marked 100,000 yearlings, leaving Cult us Lake in the spring of 1926. During the present autumn, hundreds of these marked fish, returned as adults, have been taken in Puget Sound and in the Fraser River. In the light of these facts Dr. Forester says it is useless to attempt to use the pack figures to support an eight-year-cycle theory. Indeed, the pack statistics, when studied clearly, do indicate unmistakably the four-year cycle.