Food Habits of Juvenile Salmon in the Gulf of Alaska July-August 1996

• Main Authors: Mary E. Auburn, Steve E. Ignell
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Competition; diet; chum; coho; pink; sockeye; prey. Abstract; Four species of juvenile salmon; Gulf of Alaska; Ketal; Sockeye; Oncorhynchus gorbuscha; Alaska; Copepods
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.371.5520; http://www.npafc.org/new/publications/Bulletin/Bulletin No. 2/pages 89-97(Auburn).PDF

pink (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha), sockeye (0. nerka), chum (0. ketal, and coho (0. kisutch) salmon, were collected during July and August, 1996, using a midwater trawl in near surface waters of the Gulf of Alaska from Southeast Alaska to the Alaska Peninsula. Stomach contents of these salmon were examined to identify important prey items. Crustaceans, principally hyperiid amphipods and euphausiids, and fish were the primary prey. Decapod larvae, calanoid copepods, and pteropods were also commonly found in the juvenile salmon diets. The proportions of prey type varied by habitat and regions for each of the four salmon species examined. The variation in large prey types and the small proportion, 3%, of empty stomachs suggest that the availability of prey resources does not appear to be a limiting factor for production and growth of juvenile salmon examined in this study.