On Peculiarities of the Palana River Sockeye (Oncorhynchus nerka) Abundance (North-West Kamchatka)

• Main Author: Victor F. Bugayev
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1995
• Subjects: Body length; mm Body weight; g Age Limits Average Error Limits Average Error; Kamchatka Peninsula; Okhotsk; Pacific; Palana; Sockeye; Kamchatka
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.627.9844; http://www.npafc.org/new/publications/Technical Report/TR4/page 70-72(Bugayev).pdf

In the basin of the Palana River, which flows into the Sea of Okhotsk at 59°06’N a large stock of sockeye (Oncorhynchus nerka) occurs. This stock is the third or fourth largest of this species in Asia. Reproduction and growth of this stock as juveniles occurs almost entirely in the Palana Lake basin prior to migration to the sea. While migrating to the Pacific Ocean sockeye smolts make a long migration along the Western Kamchatka coast southward and bypassing the southern extremity of Kamchatka peninsula (50°52’N). Mature fishes then make the reverse migration. As shown in Table 1, sockeye smolt migration from Palana Lake to the sea occurs at ages 1–4 years of age. In Table 2, one can see the age structure of mature fishes from the commercial catches in 1994–2001. As shown in Fig. 1, the abundance of the sockeye reveals a stable two year cycle of abundance (violated in