CANADIAN SALMON.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20519, 21 March 1930, Page 11

CANADIAN SALMON.

.VALUABLE INDUSTRY*

PACIFIC COAST CATCHES.

CANNING AND MARKETING.

[FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.]

VANCOUVER, Feb. 10. Pacific Coast .salmon constitute one of tho most valuable of Canada's natural resources and year after year the great harvest of these fish adds millions of dollars in value to the Dominion's produc-

tion. Last year, for instance, the value of British Columbia's catch of salmon was more than £3,500,000. Tho importance of the Pacific salmon fishery in Canada's commerce is further indicated by the fact that British Columbia canned salmon was exported last year to 30 foreign countries, and there was also export of salmon in other forms.

Five principal varieties of salmon are caught in British Columbia waters—sockeye, spring, coho, pink and chum. All aro of much the same food value, but the sockeye, because of the rich red colour of its tissue, is most popular and brings the highest price. In average weight Pacific salmon range from the approximate 201b. of the spring down to the 41b. of the pink.

The Spans o I Life. Although they are all members of the one family tho several varieties show interesting differences in length of natural life span. The pink, for example, lives only two years; the spring, six or seven; the coho, three; tho chum, four; and the sockeye, four to five. Unlike tho Atlantic Coast salmon (Salmo salar), which spawn several times, the Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus) spawn but once and die immediately thereafter at the river spawning ground. A large part of British Columbia's salmon catch is canned for marketing. Last year, when the total catch was some 225,745,0001b., about 98,000,0001b., valued at over £2,750,000, were canned and the year's pack—2,035,637 caseswas the largest, with one exception, in tho history of the province. More than 25,000,0001b. of salmon wore marketed in the fresh state, slightly more than 17,000,0001b. was dry-salted, and tho remainder of the catch was sold in the form of the mild-cured, pickled, and smoked products.

Operations Controlled. Since conservation of such a valuable natural resource as the salmon is obviously of first-rato national importance, the fisheries branch, Department of Marine and Fisheries, enforces regulations as to fishing appliances and close seasons. At the same time, through its fish culture division, it is continually aiding nature by stocking British Columbia waters with salmon fry or eyed eggs ' from _ the hatcheries it maintains in the province. In order to assist the fish in reaching spawning grounds, fishways are built on streams where waterfalls make them fishing is in progress somewhere in British Columbia at virtually all times of the year, except December, but it does not go on continuously in all parts of the province. Seasons vary in different districts. In all districts, all through the fishing periods, a close season of at least 48 hours each week is enforced; and in cases in which there is doubt that sufficient fish aro escaping to the spawning grounds this weekly close season is extended by as many hours as seems desirable.