Report shows juvenile salmon numbers are up
Sampling looks at juvenile migration from Taku Inlet to Icy Point
Federal biologists have recorded high numbers of juvenile pink and chum salmon in Southeast in June. But it's too early to say if that's an indication of big returns of adult fish in the near future.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's June trawl survey in Southeast, pink and chum salmon made up 85 percent of the salmon samples, and the rest consisted of sockeye, chinook and coho.
"Relative to the amount of fishing done, the June catch was high and early," said NOAA Fisheries researcher Molly Sturdevant. "Our juvenile catches for June are 5,900 fish. But what it means to the survival of returning adults we can't say at this point."
Scientists sampled juvenile salmon migration areas in a 250-kilometer range from Taku Inlet to Icy Point in the Gulf of Alaska.
"The juvenile salmon that we sampled appeared to be healthy," Joseph Orsi, a NOAA Fisheries scientist in Juneau, said in a prepared statement. "We sampled juvenile pink, chum, chinook and coho specimens. All species were abundant, which is good news for fisheries conservation."
Sturdevant said the researchers could not determine if the high numbers represent an overall better year. She said July catches were lower and that a slump in August could result in an average survey this year.
She said fisheries researchers tag the fish through a method known as thermal marking, which allows them to identify stocks of hatchery salmon. They thermally mark the salmon fry by heating and cooling the water in hatchery enclosures. The method creates circular growth marks inside the ear bones, or otoliths, of the developing fish.
That style of marking allows researchers to identify the hatchery from which the salmon is reared. The technique is practiced by local hatcheries such as Douglas Island Pink and Chum, as well as other hatcheries around the state. DIPAC releases about 100 million developing salmon a year from its Juneau hatcheries, according to NOAA.
Sturdevant said that even if the August survey constitutes an overall higher number for 2004, it is difficult to pinpoint when the juvenile fish will return. She said each of the species has a different life cycle and will return to spawn in different years.
"Juvenile pink salmon will return as adults next year," she said, adding that they have a two-year life cycle. "Chums will return three, four or five years from now, so they will turn up in the commercial fish catch over a period of years."