Interesting Juvenile Salmon Behavior

S

Shad

Life of the Party
Spokesman Review

Fell for some click bait this morning, and I'm not exactly sure what I learned (the article, like most written about salmon for news media, shows a lack of salmon knowledge on behalf of the author; note the stock image of an obviously adult coho captioned as "baby" salmon), but the paper described within documents some very interesting findings about smolt (or is it fingerlings, like the article seems to suggest??).

I think it matters whether we're talking fingerlings or smolts here, but either way, that some juvenile salmon (and probably steelhead) spend time in multiple estuaries before hitting the ocean full-time is interesting, to say the least. I suspect it might do a lot to explain why adult salmon sometimes "stray" or "dip" into non-natal streams on their spawning runs. I can also see how this highlights, yet again, the importance of ample, diverse, healthy freshwater habitat.

I'm going to try and locate the paper and read it, so I can get my facts straight, but I posted this for the purpose of discussion... which we do here!
 
Shad said:
Spokesman Review

Fell for some click bait this morning, and I'm not exactly sure what I learned (the article, like most written about salmon for news media, shows a lack of salmon knowledge on behalf of the author; note the stock image of an obviously adult coho captioned as "baby" salmon), but the paper described within documents some very interesting findings about smolt (or is it fingerlings, like the article seems to suggest??).

I think it matters whether we're talking fingerlings or smolts here, but either way, that some juvenile salmon (and probably steelhead) spend time in multiple estuaries before hitting the ocean full-time is interesting, to say the least. I suspect it might do a lot to explain why adult salmon sometimes "stray" or "dip" into non-natal streams on their spawning runs. I can also see how this highlights, yet again, the importance of ample, diverse, healthy freshwater habitat.

I'm going to try and locate the paper and read it, so I can get my facts straight, but I posted this for the purpose of discussion... which we do here!
Click to expand...
That behavior is referred to as nomadism, and is rather common in SE AK. The first place I remember seeing it described is Harding 1993, and one of the better papers on the subject is Koski 2009.
Quite the life history strategy.
 
I'm kinda' surprised that the authors are surprised to discover such fish behavior. We've known for years now that fish behavior patterns are not as rigid as originally believed. The whole concept of "dipins" and other wandering was surprising when first observed because we didn't have any other information to go on. I think we now understand that fish behavior and migration can be more complex than we know.
 
Salmo_g said:
I'm kinda' surprised that the authors are surprised to discover such fish behavior. We've known for years now that fish behavior patterns are not as rigid as originally believed. The whole concept of "dipins" and other wandering was surprising when first observed because we didn't have any other information to go on. I think we now understand that fish behavior and migration can be more complex than we know.
Click to expand...
After skimming that paper and its references, I'm a bit suprised as well. Whoever was tasked with lit review missed the boat, IMO. There's a bunch of great work absent from their analysis, and as a result they're sorta reinventing the wheel.

For one of the more interesting studies, check out Shaul et al 2013 - they confirm juvenile coho emigration and subsequent immigration movement over long spatial and temporal scales.
 
Academia: What's old can be new again 😂
 
G_Smolt said:
That behavior is referred to as nomadism, and is rather common in SE AK. The first place I remember seeing it described is Harding 1993, and one of the better papers on the subject is Koski 2009.
Quite the life history strategy.
Click to expand...

Folks used to assume the early migrants / nomads mostly died before reproducing, too, but that’s not exactly right either.

ui.adsabs.harvard.edu

Nomads no more: early juvenile coho salmon migrants contribute to the adult return

The downstream movement of coho salmon fry and parr in the fall, as distinct from the spring migration of smolts, has been well documented across the range of the species. In many cases, these fish overwinter in freshwater, but they sometimes enter marine waters. It has long been assumed that...
ui.adsabs.harvard.edu ui.adsabs.harvard.edu
 
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