I have difficulties classifying materials on salmon. I have to classify hundreds of materials on how dams affect salmon in the Pacific Northwest. For example, pit tagging salmon and then measuring with telemeters how many of those salmon get past the big dams. I'm not sure if this should go into conservation technology [6xx], or economics of land and energy [333] since we're talking numbers, or fishes [597] since it involves migration of salmon. This isn't zoology. Is it fisheries?

The material at issue is not biology or zoology; it also is not fisheries in either the technology or economics sense. 639.2756 would apply if you were dealing with the issue of how to catch for market or subsistence; 799.1756 if how to catch for fun; and 338.372756 for the economics of fisheries, including the size of catch. Nor are the works apt to be 639.3756 for how to grow salmon for market or 338.3723759 for the economics of doing so.

Your works relate to conservation, and the choice is between 639.97756 for technology of conservation and 333.95656 for the resource economics. The numbers in 639.97 are rather narrowly limited to works that focus on how to perform the work spelled out in 639.92-.96. These numbers cover habitat improvement; maintenance of reserves and refuges; and control of injuries, diseases, and pests. In contrast, the numbers in 333.956 are broadly defined, and cover most if not all other aspects of conservation. These aspects include most works on how to conduct conservation research (usually descriptive research in standard subdivision 0723), including pit tagging. Most results of the pit-tagging research would also fall in 333.95656. (The Manual note at 333.955-333.959 vs. 639.97 also provides a good guideline to help you decide whether to class materials on conservation in the 300 or 600 class.)

For some species there may be a fine line between effects of dams on natural populations (590 numbers) and populations of interest to economists (333.95 numbers). When the studies are set in the context of sustainable yields and surviving population (as they usually are with salmon), however, the interest seems to be clearly resource economics rather than biology.

Remember that you can add notation from the table under 333.7 to the salmon number 333.95656. If you have a salmon study that pertains to one of the concepts spelled out in that table, it is a pretty good sign that the number 333.95 describes your material. For example, the table gives notation 16 for conservation and protection. If your work advocates protecting salmon, class it in the 333 number and add 16, leading to 333.9565616.

Last revised: 05 September 2003