The escapement of Pacific salmon is often estimated by periodic counts of spawners, calculating the number of fish-days present and dividing by the average number of days a fish spends in the survey area. We present a maximum likelihood method to calculate the number of spawning fish and compare this approach with the most commonly used method, which relies on linear interpolation between observations. The maximum likelihood method is computationally more demanding; however, it does provide a statistical basis for describing uncertainty and can also be used to deal with data sets where the first or last counts are nonzero or where there are few observations. We compared escapement estimation methods using data from 18 experimental streams where the number of fish in the stream was evaluated by weir and carcass counts. In this comparison, the method of linear interpolation deviated from the weir count by an average of 19%, whereas the maximum likelihood method deviated by 23, 24, 30, or 40% depending upon which likelihood and arrival time model was used. We conclude that for most data sets where measures of uncertainty are not required, the linear interpolation method is adequate but recommend an examination of maximum likelihood methods when an estimate of uncertainty is required.

Our investigations into the effects of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound, Alaska, suggest that chronic damage occurred to some populations of pink salmon Oncorhynchus gorbuscha. Significantly elevated embryo mortalities were observed from 1989 through 1993 in populations inhabiting streams previously contaminated by oil. No statistically detectable difference in embryo mortality was observed in 1994 and 1995. We assessed the possible influence of the natural environment on these findings by collecting gametes from adults returning to contaminated and to uncontaminated streams, transporting the gametes to a hatchery where intrastream crosses were made, and incubating the resulting embryos under identical environmental conditions. Significantly increased embryo mortality was detected for embryos originating from the oil‐contaminated lineages in 1993 but not in 1994, which indicated that the significant differences detected in the field in 1989–1993 were not induced by naturally occurring environmental variables.

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Coded wire tags (CWTs) are routinely injected into the snouts of Pacific salmon Oncorhynchus spp. as fry to estimate contributions of tagged populations to spawning escapements and near‐shore fisheries and to assess straying. Because not all fish are tagged, tag recoveries are extrapolated to include contributions of nontagged fish released at the same time and location. A key assumption in the extrapolations is that CWTs do not affect homing ability and therefore migratory pathways. We studied tag position within the heads of homing and straying adult pink salmon O. gorbuscha returning to Prince William Sound, Alaska, to test the hypothesis that poor tag position induces straying. Heads from straying and homing tagged adults were recovered in 1992 and 1994 and X‐rayed. Tag locations were categorized into critical and noncritical areas, based on tag position relative to olfactory organs and nerves. In 1992, the 37 analyzed pink salmon that strayed were more likely to have tags in critical positions than the 154 analyzed fish that homed. In 1994, no such correlation was detected among the 66 fish tested, and we hypothesize that other factors influencing straying might have obscured a relationship. We interpret these results to indicate that tag position can affect adult homing ability in pink salmon tagged as fry.

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