QUINNAT SALMON

Evening Post, Volume CIII, Issue 76, 31 March 1922, Page 4

QUINNAT SALMON

MAKING FOR THE NORTH,

Some months ago, a report was made that quinnat salmon had mado their appearance in North Island rivers, and various theories were advanced as to their presence about the North Island since. With the exception of a more handful of fish which were liberated in the, frtitt River, salmon stocking has bsen confined to rivers of tho South Island. Two fish, orio taken from the Rangitikei River and the other from the Lower Wah.irapa Lake, wore sent to the Marino Department for examination. Tho report of Blr. L. F. Ayson, Chief Inspector of Fisheries, to the Minister, Hon. G. J. Audoreon, is as follows: — "■"Tho one caught in this Rangitikei River is a female fish, thirty-one inches in length, and before being cleaned would weigh, I estimate, about 101b. . The one from Wairarapa Lake is also a female* fish, and the weight before being cleaned would bo about 41b. The fact that the quinnat salmon have now spread through and across Cool; Strait is an interesting development in tho Department's salmon work, and is undoubtedly the result of j stocking the Wairau River, on the south side of the Strait, with th&k- ifish.l--"The hundreds and thousands o£ young salmon which havu been liberated in the Wairau RU'or since 1817 would, when they reached tho sea in Cloudy Bay, spread along the coastal waters east aiid west. Those vhieh travelled eastward would find abundance of natural feed in the strong ocean current which sets northward of Cape Campbell into Palliser Bay, and the young fish would then b& carried to the head of tho'bay and find their way into the brackish water of tho lower lake. ... "Again, th" young salmon which travelled myth and , westward from Cloudy Bay ,vould meet atrong tidal currents in tho Strait, and would be carried northwards through and past the entrance to the Sounds md across to tho northern coast off the mouths of the Manawatu, Rsngitikei, and Wanganm Rivers., The fact that these salmon am now showing up across tho Strait in this way will have i>n important bearing on the work of stocking tho Wanganui and other rivers in. the southern part of tho North Island, for it would seem that by systematically continuing the: liberation of young ealmon in the Wairau the rivers mentioned across the Strait will ba stocked a? well;." The- inspector has also reported to the Minister that a (jilb fish taken in tho Waiau River, Southland, has been identi Dad ne an Atlantic salmon. Some years ago tho Marine Department imported several shipments of Atlantic salmon ova, and the fry wore liberated in the AYniau River. The success of the experi mont remained in doubt for a long timebut there is no doubt now that the Allan lie salmon has been acclimatised. The fishery- oxpcyts anticipate thnt, before long there will be large numbers of Ihe lish running in the Waiau.