Diurnal variation in thermal environment experienced by salmonids in the North Pacific as indicated by data storage

• Main Authors: Robert V. Walker, Katherine W, Nancy D. Davis, Kerim Y, Kevin D. Friedland, H. Richard Carlson, George W
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2000
• Subjects: Bering Sea; Gulf of Alaska; Pacific; Alaska
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.548.4884; http://fish.washington.edu/research/highseas/FO.pdf

Eight temperature-recording data storage tags were recovered from three salmonids in Alaska (pink and coho salmon and steelhead trout) and five chum salmon in Japan after 21–117 days, containing the first long-term records of ambient temperature from Pacific salmonids migrating at sea. Temperature data imply diel patterns of descents to deeper, cooler water and ascents to the surface. Fish were found at higher average temperatures at night, with narrower temper-ature ranges and fewer descents than during the day. Fish tagged in the Gulf of Alaska were at higher temperatures on average (10–12°C) than chum sal-mon tagged in the Bering Sea (8–10°C). Chum salmon were also found at a wider range of tempera-