Migratory behavior of maturing pink salmon in Gastineau Channel, southeast Alaska

• Main Author: Thrower, Frank Patrick
• Format: Thesis
• Language: unknown
• Published: 1988
• Subjects: Fishes; Alaska; Gastineau Channel; Migration; Pink salmon; Salmonidae; Fairbanks
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11122/7434

Thesis (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 1988 Migration and spawning stream selection of maturing pink salmon in the area of Gastineau Channel was studied with respect to: (1) homing of individuals tagged with coded-wire as emergent fry; (2) intermingling and subsequent spawning locus of adults tagged at stream mouths; (3) migratory pathways into Gastineau Channel of fish tagged at north and south entrances; and (4) effects of stress (capture, handling and tagging) on pre-spawning adults in their natal stream on subsequent homing or straying. (1) wire-tagged adults did not stray from two natal streams; (2) of 681 adults marked at stream mouths, 308 were recovered locally, demonstrating complex stock assemblages at some stream mouths and homogeneity at others; (3) of 949 adults tagged at entrances, 300 were recovered locally demonstrating intermingling of stocks at both entrances and differences in the proportions of each stock at each entrance; (4) stress induced straying (2%) from a natal to another stream one kilometer distant.