. Columbia River fisheries development program. Fisheries Columbia The first recorded non-Indian exploitation of the Columbia Basin salmonid resource was a salmon salting plant established in the lower river in 1832. Fish taken were packed in barrels of salt for ship- ment. Although this first enterprise proved to be a failure, the ones that followed were not and a major Northwestern industry was founded. In 1866, William Hume established the first salmon cannery on the Columbia River at a site on the Washington shore 40 miles above Astoria. The pack this first year was 4,000 cases of
. Columbia River fisheries development program. Fisheries Columbia The first recorded non-Indian exploitation of the Columbia Basin salmonid resource was a salmon salting plant established in the lower river in 1832. Fish taken were packed in barrels of salt for ship- ment. Although this first enterprise proved to be a failure, the ones that followed were not and a major Northwestern industry was founded. In 1866, William Hume established the first salmon cannery on the Columbia River at a site on the Washington shore 40 miles above Astoria. The pack this first year was 4,000 cases of canned salmon. By 1881 there were 34 canneries in operation and the total pack had increased to approximately 550 thousand cases from million pounds of catch (Figure 4). In 1884, when the pack exceeded 620 thousand cases, fish were so numerous that tons of them were thrown overboard by fishermen because the canneries were not able to use them. Yearly catches fluctuated between 22 and 42 million pounds until in 1911 a record 49 million pounds were caught. The trend for the River catch from 1911 on has been generally negative. Some of the reasons for the decline are discussed in the "Habitat" sec- tion of this document. COL. R. COMMERCIAL SHLMONID CRTCH in o in o en n z u o Q_ 50000 40000 30000 20000 0Q0E. LD s C\J en s CD m CRTCH YERR Figure 4 Historical commercial catch of anadromous salmonids(in thousands). In these early years, commercial fishing took place almost exclusively within the coastal rivers. There were essentially no ocean commercial fisheries. In the case of the Columbia River, fishing ex- tended from the mouth up to Celilo Falls, (River Mile192), the area now inundated by The Dalles Dam. Most of the fishermen's efforts were concentrated in the lower 40 miles. Depending on the area fished, different gear was used. Traps and pound nets proved effective in the lower river as did drag or beach seines on the lower river sandbars (Figure 5). Fixed and dr
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