NP APe Bulletin No.2 The Use of Thermal Otolith Marks to Determine Stock-Specific Ocean Distribution and Migration Patterns of Alaskan Pink and Chum Salmon in the North Pacific Ocean 1996-1999

• Main Authors: H. Richard Carlsont, Edward V. Farley, Katherine W. Myers
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Salmon; ocean; distribution; migration; rope-trawl; thermal-otolith-mark; Keta; Pacific; Oncorhynchus gorbuscha; Pink salmon; Alaska
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.371.6991; http://www.npafc.org/new/publications/Bulletin/Bulletin No. 2/pages 291-300(Carlson).PDF

Abstract: Off shore distribution of juvenile (ocean age.0) Alaskan pink (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha) and chum (0. keta) salmon with thermal otolith marks caught by midwater trawl in the North Pacific varies by geographic region. This may reflect differences in the width of the continental shelf. A few juvenile southeastern Alaska hatchery chum salmon were caught south of major exit corridors, counter to the predominant northward migration pattern. The northern Shelikof Strait may be an important summer migration corridor for juvenile pink salmon. The ocean range of central Alaska pink salmon extends further to the southwest (to 42°N, 165°W) than shown by high-seas tag experiments, and some maturing chum salmon caught in the coastal waters off Prince William Sound in May, are from an early southeastern Alaska hatchery run (peak harvest in mid-July). We conclude that sufficient numbers of thermally-marked hatchery salmon can be recovered during coastal and offshore salmon surveys to provide significant new stock-specific information on ocean distribution and migration patterns of salmon.