Capture versus tagging impacts on chum salmon freshwater spawning migration travel times

Fisheries Management and Ecology
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Abstract

The spawning migration travel times of chum salmon, Oncorhynchus keta (Walbaum), fitted with gastrically implanted radio tags vs external spaghetti tags were tested for a short [≈60 river km (rkm)] and long migration route (≈730 rkm) on the Koyukuk River, Alaska, USA. Using a novel application of statistical arrival curve models to infer travel times for uncaptured fish, migrations by chum salmon not directly handled during the study were also assessed. Results demonstrated negligible differences in travel times within migration routes between fish fitted only with spaghetti tags and fish fitted with radio tags, indicating low impacts on migration travel behaviour associated with gastric tags once deployed. Conversely, travel times for unhandled fish as inferred by statistical arrival models may have been 12%–24% shorter than those for fish captured with gillnets for tagging. These results suggest that, if present, chum salmon migration behaviour impacts may be more strongly associated with fish capture than tag deployment.
Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title Capture versus tagging impacts on chum salmon freshwater spawning migration travel times
Series title Fisheries Management and Ecology
DOI 10.1111/fme.12294
Volume 25
Issue 4
Year Published 2019
Language English
Publisher Wiley
Contributing office(s) Coop Res Unit Leetown
Description 8 p.
First page 296
Last page 303
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