_ ..-,...

BUREAU OF COMMERCIAL FISHERIESBI LOGICAL LABORATORY

. O. BOX 155AU E BAY. ALASKA 9982J,!

HISTORY OF THE BRISTOL BAY INVESTIGATION

1938-1956

George J. Eicher

FOR A I N I STR TIVE U~::: Ol LY

April 25, 1961

'Ihis manuscript is all uneuited narrative accountof tile autllor' 5 personal rccoI Iect Ions of thehistory of the investigations of the biology ofsalmon ill Bristol tsay by the Bureau of CoouncrcialPi.sheries from 1933 to 1950. I t is subj oct toconsidcrabIe revision before fonnal publication.Permiss ion must be obtained frau t.he author beforeany part is cit.eu ill another manuscript ,

111S1'Ol{Y or nu: BRIST()L BAY INVES'rlGATION

1938-1956

George J. Eicher

Alt.nough sporadic one-man collections of data, SUCll as those wi threspect to scales anti other Ltems were made by individuals such as FrancesClark, Alan Taft , \'lillis Rich, and others after tIle fishery began, thefirst activi ty wirich became part of the continuity of studies up to thepresent started in 1938 when George Kelez and Tam Barnaby made prelllni­nary reconnaissance surveys of tlle area pursuant to Congressional direc­tives'to investigate the sa1moIl resources of Bristol Bay. This resultedfrom .Japanese off-shore fishing ill the Bristol Bay area ill the late 30'sand a considerable amount of controversy and protest fram American fish­ennen. Barnaby was to conduct off-shore work consisting mainly of taggingand marking of f ish in the ocean areas, while Kelez was to conduct thefresh-water work. The five main river systems to be included were theUgashik, Egegik, Naknek, Kv.ichak , and Nushagak systems. Barnaby spent themajor part of 1938 making arrangements to recruit men and vessels for thework - - initially two purse seiners, the Western f1rar and the Anna A.Kelez spent the ent i re season of 1938 In the in an areas of Bristol Hayworking with the local fisheries agent, Fred Lucas, to become familiarwi th the area, make plans and arrangements for charter, housing, andgeneral operations.

1939

In 1939 thillgS got into full swing. Barnaby took his boats to BristolBay and commenced operations, mainly of an exploratory nature to detenminethe feasibility of capturing and tagging fish in tIle off-shore areas.Kelez took fifteen teIuporary men to Bristol Bay by various means. Sixwent to Chignik on the U.S.F.S. Eider commanded by George Skarbo and helpedwarden Charley Petrie install the Chignik weir before proceeding to BristolBay 011 a Woodley Airways charter aircraft. These six were Wendell Pike,Wendell Metzger, George Eicher, Fred Cleaver, Gomer lIilsinger, and BertWilliams. Several of the men made the trip from Seattle to Naknek on the\~'estenl Flyer, one of Barnaby's ships, and the remainder made the trip ona colulIDia River Packers Association ship. At that time, Bristol Baypacking finms operated their own fleet of steamships to Bristol Bay, bring­ing men and material up and the salmon back down in the fall. The crewswere Jeployed as follows:

Ugashik River--Forrest Merriett ill charge, with Werldell Pike andWendell Metzger.

Egegik River--George Eicher in charge, Alan Moaney and Lyle Burt.

Naknek River--Fred Cleaver in charge, George Collier and Chuck Weil.

Kvichak River--Dick SC]llD11aJl in charge, Bert Williams and Paul Ferrier.

Nusllagak (\vood River) --Gauer Hi.Is inger in charge, Custer Wake andDon Farrel.

The initial operation was to be a mass marking of seaward migrant redsalmon, Unfor tunate.ly, due to sti.Llsunknown vagaries of weather, biology,or other causes, tlle 1939 downstream migration proved virtually non­existent except for small captures on the Nushagak and Naknek systems.The Kvichak crew had one successful haul and caught no more fish thatseason. Scale samples were taken by one man on each of the major systemsat a cannery through the fishing season. Foot stream surveys were madeon all of the major spawning grounds of the Wood River, Naknek, Kvichak ,Egegik, and Ugashik systems. Evacuation in December Invofved taking partof the group to Iliamna Portage by No. 7 patrol boat, piloted by FredLucas. 'rhe Kvichak party was already on the scene and the remainder ofthe men were flown to the area by Woodley Airways. Most of the men walkedover the t.en-miIe portage to Lliemna Bay where the U.S.F.S. Crane metthe group. A heated controversy took place when the Crane made its appearanceon departure day, inasmuch as the skipper Ole Elveness, refused to comeinside the bay, claiming it was too shallow. Eventually, all of the menwere ferried by speedboat in rough water to the open ocean anchorage,and put aboard the Crane. All were seasick in a stormy night trip toSeward. Two or three men were put ashore there to take Alaska Steamshippassage to Seattle J Inasmuch as the Crane was overloaded. Captain Crawfordtook camnand of the Crane from JW1eau to Seattle.

In the four prewar years of investigation, contracts for air charterwere provided by Woodley Airways. Art Woodley J president of the organi­zation, did much of the flying himself. A favorite pilot was Roy Holm,a young and somewhat inexperienced man who learned fast and did a goodjob. lie joined Pan American Airways in 1941 and at last report was stillflying for them on the Seattle-Honolulu run. Another pilot was Don Glass,who was killed in a test flight of a Stinson Tri-Mbtor at Juneau in 1941.~ferle Sasseen also did much of the flying for Woodley, who employed six­place Travelair monoplanes, for the most part, but had one five-placeWaco in 1938 and 1939, as well as the Stinson. After World War II, Woodleyfounded Pacific Nortllern Airlines and became its president.

1940

In 1940, appropriations were greatly reduced, pennitting only askeleton operation. It was decided in that year to plan a field labora­tory at Brooks Lake and initially build a weir across the outlet of thislake in order to use it as a study area representative of Bristol Bay.Unfortunately, not unt i.I years later was it found that Brooks Lake was

2

probably one of the least typical spa\~ling and nursery areas of BristolBay. The nucleus of men going to Bristol Bay in 1940 included, besidesKelez, two permanent men, Robert IIacker , at last report with tlie BCFBranch of Reports in Washington, D.C., and Albert Collier, later tobecome mayor of Rockport, Texas, and much later to return to tile BCFill the Texas area. Temporary men included Fred Cleaver, George Eicher,Paul Ferrier, Gomer Hilsinger, and one other.

The permanent men traveled to Bristol Bay on Alaska Steamship Linesto Seward, t.hen \\Toodley Airways to Naknek, The temporary men exceptCleaver, who traveled on tile U.S.F.S. Crane, went from Seattle to Naknek011 the U.S.F.S. Seater, Eleveness skipper, a 2l-day trip at 6 knots.Initial work involved primarily freighting of materials up the river fromthe old Bureau of Fisheries ways near Savanoski to a landing area belowthe Naknek rapids, where the Cletrac tractor was used to transport mate­rial by sled overland some 15 miles to the corner of Naknek Lake. Therethe matcr.ia l was rafted and towed by small power dory to the mouth ofBrooks River. Most of the fre ight consisted of a small amount of campinggear plus a large quantity of material from the old Naknek weir ill thefonn of 20-foot 4x4 's and large quantities of wooden pickets. ~'Iuch materialwas dragged in small, one-man rafts from the mouth of Brooks River tothe outlet of Brooks Lake. When it became obvious that this procedurewas too t ime-consuming and could not beat the arrival of salmon, Woodle)rAirways was called upon to fre ight most of the material to Brooks Lake.The pickets were sawed to 9-foot max~um length and placed inside theaircraft after all seats had been ranoved. Four 20-foot 4x4's were carriedat each trip tied to the top of tile floats. Some of the 4x4' s were carriedby two men with ropes thrown over their shoul.ders , A two-man crew wasable to carry two thusly; however, it was back-breaking work. Tripods,or "horses," to carry the stringers were built from spruce logs and weightedd.own with rocks, which were gathered from near and far, mostly far, inasmuchas there were not very many large rocks in the ~ediate area of theoutlet of Brooks Lake. These "horses" proved to be quite heavy, probablyweighing in the neighborhood of 250 pounds each before weighted withrocks.

By frmltic efforts, the weir was in place, and a temporary chicken wireclosure of the last breach held the first red salmon when it arrived.

With the start of the fishing season, men were deployed to the rivermouths to collect scale samples, and after the fishing season, two-manparties were dispatched to the spa\vning grounds. Because of insufficientnumbers of men, the Ugashik was not covered in 1940 on foot, although Ke1ezdid make aerial surveys of this area as well as the rest of the Bristol Baygrounds, Two local residents, Jerry Atkinson and Bill Baird, were hired toassist with the Egegik surveys.

At the end of the season, the party again left Bristol Bay by means ofIlianma Portage and were again picked up by the Crane in Iliamna Bay andtaken to Seward. George Kelez left later after going to Anchorage by\voodley Airways. The rest of the crew waited five days in

3

Seward for the Alaska Steamship Lines, S. s. Columbia , on which they returnedto Seattle.

1941

A slight increase in available funds pe~itted an increased effort in1941 over rhat of the previous year. A great deal of equipment was pur­chaseJ for the purpose of setting up a permanent field station at theBrooks Lake location, wllich was to be headquarters for the Bristol BayInvestigatioll, as well as serve as a laboratory for local operations andstudies.

In advallcc of the full scale operation, George Eicher left Seattle onApril 19t1l on the S.S. CollDllbia for Seward, where he joined Norman GundersonwllO had been in Kodiak. They proceeded by Alaska Railroad to Anchorageand 4 days later went to Ig'iugig at the outlet of Iliamna Lake via a lvoodleyAirways Trave.lai.r , piloted by one Curly Martin, wilO did the bulk of theflying for Woodley in Bristol Bay in 1941. Gunderson and Eicher, onarriving at Igt~ig, manufactured fyke nets and other equipment for thecapture and preservation of fingerling samples. The first of the trapswere placed in the water on May 8th. Trapping was continued unt i l May28th and fairly good catches made. On tIle latter date, George Kelezarrived with permanent biologists Howard Baltzo and Robert Hacker. TIlemain body of the temporary group arrived on tIle Crane in early .June , Inaddition to those mentioned previously, temporary men included Robert Hill,Gomer Hilsinger, Fred Cleaver, Phil Nelson, and Paul Ferrier. A smallamount of downst.ream-migrant sampling was conducted on the Wood River byEicher and HiIsinger in early .June , Marking of downstream migrants wasaccomplished on a fairly large scale at Brooks Lake and at the Naknekweir site below the Naknek Rapids,

The greatest effort in 1941 was directed toward starting constructionof the laboratory and headquarters building at Brooks Lake. The cat­trail haul, initiated in 1940, was reinstituted, and the first itanhauled over the sled trail from Naknek Rapids to Naknek Lake, was aknocked-down portable scow. Gomer Hi.Lsinger and Norman Gunderson inme­diately set up camp at the Naknek Lake terminal to assemble the scow,which took about ten days. This scow was initially buil t by George Kelez t

father in Seattle. It was 16 feet long by 8 feet wide, and was poweredby a 9 hp. Jolmson outboard motor , occasionally augmented by a 3-1/2 hp ,Evinrude. Eicher and liill conducted the operation of transporting thelarge amoWlts of supplies and materials fran below the rapids to NaknekLake. These were stockpiled at the Naknek Lake tenninal, awaiting can­pletion of the scow. Because of the lateness of the hour and necessityof building the weir again at Brooks Lake, before arrival of the salmon,activities were quite hectic. A typical log-book entry for this operationreads as follows, "left the river at 6:40 a.m. with load of material;reached the lake at 10:35 a.m.; left the lake 11:30 a.m.; reached theriver 2: 2S p.m.; reloaded the sled wi.th materials; left the river 5: 20 p.m.;

4

rcachcu the lake 9:15 p.nl.; left the lake 9:40 p.nto; reached the river12 :4U a.la." The same crew of two men worked on this operation from .June2 to ...]UI1C 22 wi thout a day off. On t he latter date, IIill and Eicherbroke canp on the river, Loaded t he i r sled wi th C31TI!)iJlg suppl i.es and~asol iI1C t aI1J took off over lanJ for Brooks Lake. On the second day,t ncy drove t nc tractor anti sled over rhe top of the mountain next to thesouthwest ClIO of Brooks Lake, 110\v known as Eicker Peak, and descended tobrooks Lake. The last day, ent i r'c Iy through the t imber , was the mostuifflcult of all. They arrivcJ at Brooks Lake at 8:10 p.m. of thet hird Jay' wi til three gallons of gasoline left. There t hcy innneJiatclyplungcd Into haul ing t.he supplics from the corner of Naknek Lake, wherethey had brought t hem wi.t.h the tractor, to the mouth of Brooks River, wheret hey again hauled. t hem by tractor to Brooks Lake. This again was a franticoperation.

1\ typica.l log entry is as follows: "left Brooks camp at 4: 10 a.m.;left the mouth of Brooks River 5:00 a.rn. with the scow; arrived at NaknekLake frc ight terminal 10:00 a.m; ; loaded the scow and left 12:00 noon;reached Brooks River 6:00 p.ra.; Loaded t.he scow and sled; left the mouthof the river 7:00 p.ln.; 'reached the weir camp 7:20 p.m." The entire crewat Brooks Lake took July 4th off, the only day of rest taken in a periodof over two months , TIle haul ing of materials was complet.ed on July 12tll.hark was started on t he foundat ion for t.hc laboratory wh i l e biologicalwork was being performed. Again , scale sampl es were collected at theJ110l1tllS of the rivers, and surveys were conducted on foot on four of themaj or sys tcms , i Iil s ingcr and Bal t zo surveyed the h'ood River sys tem ,uacke r and Ferrier the Ll i.amna , Cleaver and Hil I the Naknek, and Eicheranu >.lClS011 t.hc Lgegik..

On compIct ion of t.he spawning-pround survey SeaSO]1, full effort wastiirown into the Laboratory, and all hands worked on this project. TIleentire founcat i on was completed aI1U SOTIle of 'the bettom logs installed,.incIuding SOl7lC all t.he south wing wnich were later removed because theybecame unsound before they coul.l be added to. The temporary and permanentmen returned to Seattle f'rom t in.c to t irne by way of \\Toodley Airways toAnchorage arid Alaska St.eamsh ip Lines to Seattle. The last to leave BrooksLake on October 9 were Kelez and Licher . In Naknek, they were joined byC1C~1\rer and HiLsingcr for the trip to Anchorage. After five days there ,the group went to Seward by \v'ootllcy Airways and thence to Seattle on thes. s. Denali of Alaska Steamship Company,

1942

World War II had started by 1942; however, it was proposed to completetile central sect ion of t.he headquart.crs cabin at Brooks Lake, as well asto carry on cont inui.ty of scale sampl ing and other biological work inbristol Bay. George Kelez entered 'the Navy at this t ime , and Tom Barnabytook over the fresh-water investigation work. No permanent men wereavailable; lwwever, a tenporary force consisting of Gomer Hilsinger,~~illard HiIs inger , Bob Parker, William Peck, Jud Nelson, Dick MulLineaux ,Arva Joula, Larry \ovitt, Ray Reed, Art Zyllstra, and Gene Maltzeff , went

5

to the area. Widespread work in Bristol Bay was impossible that yearbecause of extreme difficulty in obtaining air transportation. The wareffort had most of the local charter services tied up with more lucrativework most of the time. In addition, pilots, mechanics, and others weredifficult for the operators to keep. Some help was obtained with air­craft from the Alaska Game Call1llission, which was then a part of the Fishand Wildlife Service. The lack of transportation, however, pretty muchforced concentration of efforts in the Brooks Lake area, although scalesamples were obtained at the river mouths. Foot surveys were not conductedon any of the spawning grounds with the exception of a few in the BrooksLake bronediate vicinity.

The entire crew went to Seattle in September on the S.S. GeneralCorgas, Libby McNeil and Libby Steamer.

1943

Tom Barnaby again di rected the minimal operations, which were reducedto little as possible with four temporary men, who were William Peck, BobParker, Eugene Bridge, and Wendell Metzger. This was the only year thatthe Brooks Lake weir was not installed. 'fhe crew arrived too late on thescene and was too small in number to attempt to do this. Work was concen­trated on a minimum of activity in finishing much of the central sectionof the headquarters building. Scale samples were collected at thecanneries, and a very small amount of stream survey work was completed.A novel evacuation in the fall found the crew going from Anchorage toGreat Falls, Montana on M.A.T.S., thence to Seattle by Trailways bus.

1944

Barnaby did not go to Alaska this year, having been put in charge ofthe North Pacific Fishery investigations, which included the ColumbiaRiver and other Washington and Oregon streams.

Again a small holding operation was performed. Temporary men in­cluded William Peck, Eugene Bridge, Wilbur Ashcraft, and Willis Dunbar.The weir was installed, and counts continued at Brooks Lake. This, asidefram scale collections at some of the river mouths, principally theNaknek-Kvichak area, constituted the only work performed. At this time,Navy Ccmnander George Kelez was stationed in Kodiak and from time to timeflew over to Brooks Lake in a navy plane and helped perform various oddjobs, among them erection of the water tower, which stood for many yearson its original foundations before it was necessary to replace them.

1945

Only a force of temporary men, including Bill Peck, Eugene Bridge,and two others were maintained at Brooks Lake alone to install and operatethe weir with the help of COlliIlander Kelez when he could get there fromKodiak. It was possible to continue collections of scale data from thecorranercial fisheries in the Naknek and Kvichak River mouths. At this t imealso, Kelez managed to secure a surplus aircraft, a YKS Waco, and had itrebuilt in Anchorage, partially under his supervision.

6

1946

\vith the war over, George Kelez returned to cornnand as Chief of Alaskaninvestigations and turned his personal supervision to the Bristol Bay inves­tigations. The crew in this year consisted of Eugene Bridge, Les Ensign,William Peck, Bob Lander, Chester Mattson, Larry Knapp and Warren Nystrom,who piloted the Waco, put into operation in this year,together with GeorgeKelez, also a pilot. Expansion of the effort was pl.anned, A tagging studyon Brooks River was perfonned to determine the destination of fish passingthrough the Brooks Lake weir wi th respect to time of passage. Aerialspawning ground surveys of the entire Bristol Bay watershed were reinstitutedby Kelez, and plans were made for an expanded program of investigation.Scale samples were taken at various canneries, and foot stream surveys wereconducted on Brooks Lake and on the Naknek system.

Spawning ground crowding studies were made through the use of pens.

1947

Funds were available in this year for a larger scale investigationaleffort. George Eicher, a temporary during prewar investigations, left hisposition as chief biologist of the Arizona Game Department, to take chargeof the Bristol Bay investigation, assisted by Bill Peck, who became apermanent employee in that year. Pilot Warren Nystrom also continued tofly the Waco, although Eicher was also checked out in this operation. Dr.Willis Rich, of Stanford University, spent approximately a month in thefield in Bristol Bay as a consultant. Other permanent men partiallyassigned to the Bristol Bay work were Bob Hacker and Lester Scattergood.Hacker made a brief field visit. Temporary men included Harold Hagen,now a professor at Colorado State University, llarry Brockley, RichardSheridan, Alonzo Pruter, Eugene Bridge, Les Ensign, Larry Knapp, and AlEfumo.

Tagging work to attempt to identify races of fish passing through thefisheries was pursued on the Naknek and KvichakRivers. Tagging camps wereset up at Igiugig and at the weir site on the Naknek. Additional taggingwas also performed at the Brooks Lake weir. Tag recoveries were performedon Ilianma Lake and the various spawning grounds of the Naknek system,Downstream migrations were sampled on the Naknek system. Eicher and Peckparticipated in the visual aerial surveys, with some assistance franGeorge Kelez. A system of photographic aerial surveys was worked out byEicher with the assistance of Kelez and Dr. Rich. A Norduyn Norsemanaircraft was used for this purpose with a hole cut in the after belly toreceive an F56 Fairchild aerial camera. Photographs were made of spawningconcentrations on index areas of each of the main river systems. Thepurpose was to cover such index areas at the same time in each ensuingyear so that the fish could be counted fram the photographs and indicesdeveloped for each year. .

7

Rich and Eicher also collaborated on development of a system ofcounting fish moving upstream in the lower rivers from towers placed inthese areas. Dr. Rich had been originally struck with the feasibilityof this in 1928, when he noted the red salmon' s proc1 i vity for followingthe river margins in narrow bands , which could be easily observed franthe high banks. It was decided that the use of towers at the water edgewould provide even better vantage points A detailed system and proposalwas worked out wllich was submitted for funding as a program in ensuingyears; however, it was never possible to obtain money, and it remainedfor Dr. William F. Thompson of the Fisheries Research Institute of theUniversity of Washington to initiate this ~stem of salmon run monitoringin 1952.

Spawner crowding studies through the use of spawning ground penswere again conducted in 1947.

'fwo minor mishaps occurred in 1947. Bridge and Ensign, conductingspawning ground surveys on Coville Creek (later renamed American River),struck a sweeping tree going downstream and overturned, losing the dory,two outboard motors and much additional equipnent. It was two daysbefore they were discovered and rescued fram the mouth of the creek.Knapp and Hagen overturned in a skiff in the same manner on HeadwaterCreek, tributary to Brooks Lake and lost much equipnent , but they wereable to recover the boat and return under their own power.

An extra-curricular activity of sane interest was the visit of Generalof The Annies Dwight D. Eisenhower to Brooks Lake on August 10. He wasaccompanied by General Alfred Gruenther, then Caranandant of the Anny WarCollege, and General Craig, then Canmander of the Alaskan Theater. Theyspent the better part of the day fishing, relaxing, and inspecting researchoperations.

1948

The effort again suffered a reduction in funding, resulting in areduced force. Permanent men included Eicher and Peck. Temporary menincluded t-ferrill Spence, Bill Rees, Al Pruter , Howard Sanders, Bob lfeg,JOM Luft, and Dick ~ith. Tagging studies initiated in 1947 were con­tinued in 1948 in order to establish racial distribution of fish passingthrough the fdshery, Crews were maintained for this purpose at Igiugigand Naknek ~ir site.

Crowding studies through the use of Pens were again carried on as werefingerling sampling and enumeration of the nm at Brooks Lake and alliedroutine work. A twin engine Beechcraft, model l8S, newly acquired by theFish and Wildlife Service J was modified to take the vertical aerial cameraused previously in the Norseman. From this, the aerial photographic sur..veys initiated in 1947 were continued. Midway in the season, pilot WarrenNystrom was called away to fly for the Management Agent at Cordova, andEicher piloted the Waco the remainder of the season personally. Aerial

8·

surveys of the spawning grounds were conducted by Eicher, Peck, andmanagement biologist Bert .Johnson ,

Two minor mi.shaps involving aircraft occurred in 1948 at about thesame time. Nystrom and Eicher, landing in the Egegik Rapids to inspectdownstream-migrant fyke nets, struck a rock and damaged a float on theWaco so that it was unflyable. They spent two days there before makingenough repairs and other arrangements to fly out and return to BrooksLake, where they found that in their absence a CM airplane taking offtowards the weir so that a eM man could get a motion picture of it movingtowards the camera, flew directly into the weir causing extensive damageto both it and the airplane. Frantic efforts were required to repairthe weir before the arrival of the first salmon, momentarily expected atthat t~e. This aircraft was also the subject of later field repair, whichellabled it to fly out.

After the season's end, Eicher was pressed into duty at the requestof the Alaska Game Commission to perform the first poisoning of an AlaskaLake recorded. Sundi Lake, near the present Anchorage International Airportwas treated with rotenone on September 20 in anticipation of rainbow troutplants, which were, however, not made at that time. Fish killed weremainly sticklebacks.

1949

Permanent employees in 1949 included Eicher, Peck, and Al Pruter. Peckleft the investigation prior to the field season to take a position withRiver Basin studies in Oregon. Temporary employees included MerrillSpence, Bill Rees, Larry Knapp, Dick Weaver, George Kaydas, Dick &nith,Gene Deschamps, Vernon Hacker, William Saltzman, JOM Hurst, Mike Michel,Mike Wold, and Jerry 0 'Neil. The latter four men were detailed almostexclusively to construction of a fish ladder over the falls in BrooksRiver. Virtually the same operations were undertaken in 1949 as in 1948.Two aircraft were employed in this season. Waco 16210 was retired, andGrumman Widgeon 703 took its place. A Fairchild 24, number 28540, wasalso used on loan from the Alaska Game Ccemi.ssion. The aircraft werepiloted by Eicher and Knapp. The fish ladder over the falls was hewn orblasted from the solid rock in order to make it as natural-appearing aspossible. It was 10 feet in width with seven pools, each 1 foot abovethe other. Water was metered into the topmost pool through two orificesin a headgate. It was completed with the exception of the bottommostweir in 1949.

Photographic surveys using the Beechcraft 18 were again pursued.Piloting was by Harvey Hedlund, as in 1948. Freighting by the aircraftdivision was done by Grumman Goose airplanes, flown principally by WalterWhite, Harvey Hedlund, and Theron Smith, The cleared-off airplane pull­out and parking strip was prepared this year early in the season.

9

1950

In this year, tile hierarchy of the Fish and Wildlife Service inWasllington, D.C., decided that all funds and effort in Alaska investi­gation should be concentrated on the various aspects of pink salmon insoutheastern Alaska, and all other illvestigations were to revert to astandby basis, merely maintaining a continuity of records. Eicher wasassigneJ the task of leadiIlg a project concerned with the ocean mortalityof pink salmon in southeastern Alaska. Continuity in Bristol Bay wasmaintained on the weir counts at Brooks Lake, scale sampling in thefiSJ1Cry, sane spawning ground surveys, and the aerial, visual, andphotographic surveys. Dick Weaver, assistant to Uicher, headed up mostof the field work durin& the season. llis crew also camplete~ the fishladder at Brooks Falls. In this year Nortllern Consolidated Airlinesestablished its fishing camp at the mouth of Brooks River as well as atthe narrows of Grosvenor and Coville Lake, and at the outlet of KulikLake. Assisting Weaver were temporary men George Kaydas, Richard Adams,and Hal Holes. Tan Costello, of the fisheries management division,assisted on foot stream surveys. Eicher came to the Bay in time to makethe visual and photographic surveys. Visual surveys were made in a Cessna170, rumber 748, piloted by Jay Harmond. Eicher and Bert Johnson, fish­eries management agent, collaborated. 011 the visual surveys. TIle BrooksFalls fish ladder was put into operation late in the season and provedsuccessful. Photographic surveys were again perfonmed with the Beechcraft18, piloted by Graham Mower.

1951

Thi.s was again a curtailed program year for Bristol Bay, with an­pnasis continuing OIL pink salmon ill southeastern Alaska. Dick Weavercontinued in charge of field operations, wi th temporaries Hal Boles, AltonRappel, and Steve Lee. Because of sane interdepartmental differences ofopinions, aircraft were not available for photographic surveys and nearlynot for visual aerial surveys. These were finally performed by Eicherana management agent Bert .Johnson in Grtmman WidgeoIl 703, piloted by Bob8Jnith. ~Iinimal research activities were much the same as in 1950 includ­ing weir operation at Brooks Lake and collections of scale samples in thef.isnery .

1952

This year saw a somewhat revived program in Bristol Bay, althoughwork continued ill tile southeastern Alaska field. Direction at theWashington level indicated some renewed interest in Bristol Bay, andmore funds were available. Eicoor spent more time on the scene and alarger force of tenporaries assisted Dick Weaver. These included BobStokes, Dale Becker, Steve Lee, Al Rappel, and Hal Boles. This yearsaw the first installation of the pennanent weir at Brooks Lake utilizingaluminun pickets in bipeds fitted on j ackhanmer bits sunk in the rock atthe bottom of the river. Other work included collection of scale samples.

10

A preaatory fish study was initiated on the Wood River system. Photo­graphi.c surveys were reinitiated in this year using Beechcraf't 79911as ill the previous years. Aircraft supervisor Theron SmitIl piloted onthis operation. Eicher flew h~lself and Bert Johnson in Cessna 748 onthe visual aerial surveys. This airplane was rented from the Gameddv is ion, This year saw the first installation of Leupold and Stevenslongplaying temperature recorders at various locations. These wereset up to record the nine months without attention. During the ensuingwinter, at Eicher's request, Bob Mahaffey; Game Management Agent, andGeorge Kaydas, then winter supervisor for Fisheries Management at KingSalmon, went to Brooks Lake to check on operation of a temperaturerecorder, went through the icc with the airplane in shallow water andwere 'three days get.t ing out. They managed to get the power plant andradio in operation so that they could notify others of their plight.

1953

The vagaries of headquarters allocations fran Washington, D.C.,ebbed severely this year and Bristol Bay operations were cut to a bareminimum, Except for the times when Eicher was in the area, only onepermanent man, Char-les Hunter , and one temporary, Robert Eckwall, wereon salmon studies. Their work was confined pretty much to weir oper­ation at Hrooks Lake, collection of fingerling samples, and the main­tenance of records. The predatory fish investigation was carried onIn the Lake Alegnag ik area under the supervision of Dick Weaver, assistedby Steve Lee and Bill Ozoroff. This was the year that a four-wheeledrubber-tired trailer was taken to Brooks Lake for the first time toreplace several sleds wllich had worn out in the course of tearing upthe Landscape over several years.

Photographic surveys were again made in Beechcraft 79911, piloted byTheron Sroith , ~1ost of the visual aerial surveys were made in a PiperSuper Cub, mmber 757, borrowed fran Game Management, flown by Eicher,accompani.ed by lvlanagement Agent Bert .Johnson. Later surveys were madewith a Piper Pacer number 740, borrowed from agent Bob Mahaffey, andagain operated by Eicher, accompanied by .Johnson. About this year,the fireplace at the Brooks Lake headquarters cabin was completed. Thisparticularpart of the building was built a~ost entirely by supervisorypersonnel working in odd moments of bad weather and other opportune times.It was started III 1942 and continued at a fairly reasonable pace until itreached a stage wherein the fireplace could be operated, after whichinterest in its completion to tIle design stage lagged; however, per­sistence finally paid off, and it was completed this year. Dick Weaverhad the honor of placing the last stone at the top.

1954

Operations were increased in 1954, as interest at the Washingtonlevel came back to Bristol Bay. Under Bdcher , two permanent men,

11

Ricllard Straty &ld Dick Weaver, carried on most of the field operations.Weaver continued Witll the predatory fish study at the Agulawok River onLake Alegnagik, assisted by Richard Thompson, JOM Crawford, and briefly,Tan Duncan, Straty was assisted by Gordon Peltonen and Richard Hansenin the maintenance of nonnal records on the rest of Bristol Bay operationsincluding operation of the weir at Brooks Lake, a collection of fingerlingsamples there and collection of scale samples fran the fishery at themouth of the river. Meteorological data were also collected. During theSU11Iner, Eicllcr went to Woods Hole, Massachusetts, to receive consulting helpfranl George Rounsefell with respect to a pending publication on Bristol Hay.an his return, Eicher picked up a new Piper Pacer nunber 716 in Pennsylvaniaand ferried it to Anchorage, establishing a record of 3-1/2 days for ferry­ing of F\~S aircraft fran rhe east coast to Alaska. The photographic air­pl~le was piloted by aircraft supervisor Theron Smith.

1955

Interest at the WashingtOJl level in Bristol Bay expanded greatly inthis year and a significant increase of funds became available. A large­scale tagging operation in Bristol Bay to detenmine the destination offish by rivers from the various fishing grounds was undertaken, usingfishing boats under charter. Tagging was also undertaken on theUgasllik River at the weir and at Brooks Lake. Work canmenced on theestablishment of index streams of each of the watersheds, with the ob­jective of detenmining mortality between egg deposition and fry stage ineach of the systems. Fish were counted into the streams and fry were tobe counted out. Initially, the streams chosen were "F' Creek on lowerUgashik Lake, Cleo Creek on Becharof Lake, and Hidden Creek on Brooks Lake.Plans were made to later expand thi.s to include index areas on the Kvichakand \4/000 River. SmalL, permanent living quarters were established, exceptat Brooks Lake. A marking-and-recovery pilot program to detennine themagnitude of downstream smolt migrations was intiated in Brooks River,utilizing fyke nets and marking by tattoos. Work was canpleted on thepredatory fish study on the Wood River system, Foot surveys, principallyto recover tagged fish, were conducted on Ugashik Lakes and Brooks Lake.The normal photographic surveys were again performed by Eicher in Beech­craft 540. Piper Pacer number 704 was pennanently attached to the studyin 1955 and was piloted by Eicher, who spent most of the season in thefield. This aircraft was lost for a 4-week period in the middle of theseason when the engine failed on take-off out of Nystran Lake and con­siderable damage ensued. The wreckage was flown partly out of NystranLake, and partly after transportation to Brooks Lake, to King salmon andthence to Anchorage for repair. While it was being rebuilt, Piper 728,another Pacer, was rented from Game Managenent Division. The visualaerial surveys of the entire Bristol Bay region were made by Eicher incollaboration with Bert .Johnson, management agent, in Piper 704.

In addition to Eicher, permanent men in 1955 included Dick Straty andDick Weaver. Tenporar.ies included Wendell Peterson, Pat McGurmigle, Dick

12

Rowland (drowned some years later whi Ie on llCF duty) J Craig Magnuson, DickAnderson, Howard "Tes t f i e l J , Otto Florschutz, Bert Ewing, Dick Hansen; JOM\vintller, Bjorson , Jean Dunn , Bob Lewis, Dick Allen, and Bernard Simonsma,

In 1950 a complete turnover of personnel, objectives, field operationsand general Alaska Investigations headquarters occurred. 'Those W}lO hadparticipated ill the area in the previous Itl-year period left the scene,mid a new era began.

13