Efficiency of Natural Propagation of the Pink Salmon ( Oncorhynchus gorbuscha ) in McClinton Creek, Masset Inlet, B.C.

• Published in: Journal of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada
• Main Author: Pritchard, A. L.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Canadian Science Publishing 1948
• Subjects: General Medicine; Masset; Masset Inlet; McClinton Creek; Oncorhynchus gorbuscha; Pink salmon
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/f47-024; http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/f47-024

Through the medium of specially-designed counting fences, records have been maintained of the adult pink salmon, Oncorhynchus gorbuscha, spawning in McClinton creek, Masset inlet, B.C. from 1930 to 1942, of the eggs available for deposition each season and of the fry resulting from these eggs. A loss of 76.2 to 93.1 per cent of the potential egg deposition occurs between the time of upstream spawning migration and the egress of the fry to sea. This mortality is assigned to a number of factors, some of which are briefly discussed. Within certain limits and under reasonably uniform climatic conditions smaller egg depositions provide greater efficiencies of hatch (percentage relationship of numbers of fry migrants to potential egg deposition). There thus appears a tendency toward rebuilding the run, herein termed "resilience," and believed to be closely bound up with the relationship between the fish and its physical and biological environment.