Movements and survival of sonically tagged farmed Atlantic salmon released in Cobscook Bay, Maine, USA

• Published in: ICES Journal of Marine Science
• Main Authors: Whoriskey, Frederick G., Brooking, Paul, Doucette, Gino, Tinker, Stephen, Carr, Jonathan W.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford University Press (OUP) 2006
• Subjects: Ecology; Aquatic Science; Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics; Oceanography; Atlantic salmon; Salmo salar
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.icesjms.2006.04.002; http://academic.oup.com/icesjms/article-pdf/63/7/1218/29125500/63-7-1218.pdf

Abstract We sonically tagged and released farmed Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) from a cage site in Cobscook Bay, Maine, USA. The fish were released in January (n = 75) and in April and May (n = 198) 2004 to study their movement patterns and survival and to assess the possibility of recapturing them. Inshore and offshore waters in this region are subject to intense tidal currents. Tagged salmon dispersed >1 km from the cage site within a few hours of their release. Mortality was high within Cobscook Bay and the surrounding coastal region (56% of the winter (January) releases; 84% of the spring (March) releases), probably the result of seal predation. Most surviving fish exited the coastal zone and entered the Bay of Fundy along the routes of the dominant tidal currents, passing through Canadian waters. No tagged fish were detected during the wild salmon spawning season in autumn 2004 in any of the 43 monitored salmon rivers draining into the Bay of Fundy, or during 2005 either in the Magaguadavic River, the site of the hatchery in which the fish were reared to the smolt stage, or by a limited coastal receiver array.