Variation in the timing of river entry of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.) in the Baltic

• Main Authors: Anna KUPARINEN, Juha MERILÄ
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford University Press 2009
• Subjects: Atlantic salmon; Coastal fisheries; Fisheries management; Freshwater entry; Migration; River entry; Zoology; QL1-991; Salmo salar
• Online Access: https://doaj.org/article/8ad43fe136aa48b1847f544c15e35f19

The timing of river entry in the Atlantic salmon is known to depend on genetic, demographic and environmental factors, but little is known about the relative magnitude of among population and among year variation and covariation in this respect in natural state Atlantic salmon rives. To investigate this, variability in the timing of river entry in three historical Finnish Atlantic salmon populations were analyzed using salmon trap data collected during 1870–1902. The analyses reveled that 1) the timing of river entry differed substantially and consistently among the rivers, and that 2) variation among the rivers was much larger than variation among years. Annual variations were not explained by regional environmental conditions, whereas in one river the timing of the local flood peak was a significant predictor of the timing of river entry. Differences in the timing of salmon entry to geographically closely situated rivers suggests that a regionally fixed opening date for coastal fisheries might not be the best management strategy as it may lead to uneven exploitation of salmon populations from different rivers [Current Zoology 55 (5): –2009].