Atlantic salmon of wild and hatchery origin have different migration patterns
Publication: Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
13 February 2023
Abstract
Hatcheries are frequently used to support or restore threatened Atlantic salmon populations. However, little is known about how rearing affects behaviour and fitness of hatchery adults that return to the river to spawn. We used acoustic telemetry to compare migration patterns exhibited by hatchery (N = 16) and wild (N = 12) Atlantic salmon spawners within a river system in Norway. Hatchery Atlantic salmon in this study were released as smolts and were identified by their missing adipose fin upon return to rivers after 1+ winters spent at sea. Hatchery-origin Atlantic salmon displayed aberrant reverse movement behaviour, by moving with frequent reversals between the river and the fjord, a behaviour that was not observed in any wild Atlantic salmon. No difference in survival and outmigration timing after spawning was found for the two groups. The observed effect of hatchery origin on behavior may have implications for stock assessments made to assess the progress of restoration in the river, particularly if behavioural differences impact catchability or detections of returning adult salmon. The consequences of different movement patterns are uncertain; however, movements are energetically costly and may ultimately impact the fitness of hatchery Atlantic salmon.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
Volume 80 • Number 4 • April 2023
Pages: 690 - 699
History
Received: 13 June 2022
Accepted: 14 November 2022
Accepted manuscript online: 16 December 2022
Version of record online: 13 February 2023
Copyright
© 2022 The Author(s). Permission for reuse (free in most cases) can be obtained from copyright.com.
Data Availability Statement
The data are available on request.
Key Words
Authors
Author Contributions
Conceptualization: CIN, KWV, BTB
Data curation: RJL
Formal analysis: CIN, RJL
Funding acquisition: BTB
Methodology: CIN, ESN, ES, RJL
Project administration: KWV, RJL
Supervision: KWV, GV, ESN, ES, RJL
Visualization: CIN, RJL
Writing – original draft: CIN, KWV, GV, RJL
Writing – review & editing: CIN, KWV, GV, BTB, ESN, ES, RJL
Competing Interests
There is no conflict of interest.
Funding Information
CIN was financed by the Norwegian Research Council project PaCE. RJL and KWV were financed by the Norwegian Research Council project LaKES. The project had additional funding from the Norwegian Environment Agency and internal funding from Norwegian Research Centre.
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Cecilie I. Nilsen, Knut Wiik Vollset, Gaute Velle, Bjørn Torgeir Barlaup, Eirik Straume Normann, Elisabeth Stöger, and Robert James Lennox. 2023. Atlantic salmon of wild and hatchery origin have different migration patterns. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences.
80(4): 690-699. https://doi.org/10.1139/cjfas-2022-0120
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