2 Fisheries and Oceans

• Main Authors: R. K. Booth, E. B. Bombardier, R. S. Mckinley, D. A. Scruton, R. F. Goosney, Science Branch
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1997
• Subjects: Atlantic salmon; Newfoundland
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.596.4093; http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/library/211097.pdf

This study was conducted to investigate the swimming capabilities ofjuvenile (smolts) and post spawning adult (kelts) Atlantic salmon (Sa/ma safar) to develop biological criteria for use in the design of downstream fish passage facilities. Studies were conducted using wild fish collected from the Exploits River, central Newfoundland. Swimming performance trials were conducted on site using Blazka-type swim speed chambers (35 and 70 litre capacity) and ambient river water. A total of 34 kelt and 121 smolt were tested between temperatures of 5 to 9°C and 7 to 18°C, respectively. Critical swimming velocity ofkelts was dependent on body size and was approximated by a velocity twice the body length (0.97 to 1.20 m3s-I). Conversely, the critical swimming velocity of smolts (0.70 to 1.12 m3s- l) was related to water temperature but unaffected by body size. The sustained swimming speed ofkelts was 0.5 m\-I (approx. 1 body length per second, bl·s-I), burst activity commenced at 0.8 m3s-1 (approx. 1.4 bl·s-I), and fish could no longer swim above 1.4 m3s-1 (approx. 2.2 bl·s-I). The sustained swimming speed of smolts was also 0.5 3m s-1 (approx. 2.6 bl-s-I) and unrelated to temperature. Prolonged swimming was between 0.5 and 0.9 m3s · 1 (2.5 and 4.5 bl-s- I, respectively) at both 7 and 12°C and burst activity commenced at