Abstract Charles Henry Gilbert (1859–1928) was a pioneering ichthyologist and an early fishery biologist of particular significance to the fisheries of the west coast of the U.S. As chairman of the Zoology Department of Leland Stanford Junior, University in Palo Alto, CA, from 1891 to 1925, Gilbert became increasingly interested in the biology of Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.). His studies of the use of scales to age salmon (ca. 1909 to 1912) led to his research on these fishes for the British Columbia Provincial Fisheries Department (1912 to 1924) and for the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries, mainly in Alaska, from about 1917 to 1927. He pioneered racial studies on salmon using the scale method, was instrumental in establishing sound tagging programs on salmon in Alaska to define their migratory patterns, and was one of the very first scientists to consider the population dynamics of northwest stocks of Pacific salmon. Above all, Gilbert was an ardent conservationist who warned both the salmon‐canning industry of the Pacific coast and government authorities of the severe dangers to the resource by unrestrained fishing.