Comparison of the Fecundity of Sockeye Salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) in the Skeena River Catch with the Fecundity of those in the Escapement

Skeena River sockeye salmon are caught by the fishery mainly with gillnets. It is generally recognized that gillnets are selective for size. Foskett (1958) compared the size of sockeye sampled from the Rivers Inlet catch with the size of those sampled from the spawning grounds. He observed that the fishery tended to select the larger 4-year-olds, the smaller 5-year-olds, and none of the 3-year-olds. The selective action of gillnets in the Skeena fishery is described by Milne (1955). More recently Larkin and McDonald (1968) estimated that the Skeena River fishery selectively removed 5-year-olds at a rate 1.5 times that of 4-year-olds, and took none of the 3-year-olds. The purpose of this report is to compare the fecundity of sockeye of the Skeena catch with that of the escapement.