Kodiak Mirror

Salmon Decrease Laid To Bear

The loss of salmon, in the Karluk Lake area, due to predation by bears is not only economically important but constitutes a serious threat to the perpetuation of the runs of red salmon produced within the Karluk system." according to a report just published by Richard F. Shuman, U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service aquatic biologist.

Shuman has been on Kodiak Island for the past several summers, studying the salmon runs and causes of their decrease, and his report, entitled "Bear depredations on red salmon spawning populations in the Karluk River System, 1947." has just been finished.

Observers of salmon migrations have long been aware that the depredations of feeding bear result in large losses each year, Shuman reports, and have realized that "this loss is great enough to be of considerable economic importance.

"When the condition of the salmon runs is considered, it becomes evident that immediate control of the bear population is urgently needed," he states.

Reviewing the history of the Karluk runs, Shuman points out that since the run is decreased to some extent by commercial fishing, its further decrease by bear becomes more important.

"As the fish decrease in number, depredations become more significant as the predators will take an increasingly higher percentage of the escapement each year," he writes. "The loss of a given number of spawners is relatively unimportant when the escapements are numbered in millions; the same loss can be alarming when the escapements are as low- as they have been in recent years."

Pointing out that over 31 percent of the fish which entered Moraine Creek, a feeder creek into Karluk Lake, were killed by bear before spawning, Shuman said that "when this percentage is applied to all of the fish which entered the tributary streams, it can be stated that during the 1947 season at Karluk the minimum loss in unspawned fish was 94,119."

He estimates the commercial value of the loss at $117,649, and points out that the killing of bear in the same area by sportsmen brought to the territory only $9,000, leaving a net loss of $109,649.