Article Skagit Bull Trout Primer Ch 4: A Mystery - Dolly Varden or Bull Trout? (By Smalma)

[Josh]

Skagit Bull Trout Primer Ch 4: A Mystery - Dolly Varden or Bull Trout?
By: @Smalma


Photo by @Greg Armstrong

For decades the native char of the Skagit basin was thought to be Dolly Varden. The fish had access to the salt and some of the population spend time there foraging much like the local sea-run cutthroat. That thinking was challenged after T. M. Cavender in 1978 published his paper “Taxonomy and distribution of the bull trout Salvelinus confluentus from the American northwest. He looked in detail at museum specimens focusing on the skulls of fish thought to be bull trout. He found that skull and its bones had a unique shape(s). In the simplest terms he found that bull trout have a larger and broader and flatter head and a more ventrally flattened body. As we look at Skagit native pink spotted char it was clear that a portion of them (maybe 15 to 20%) fit that description of bull trout. Does what our local species are or what we call them make a difference...

In Ch 4 of the series @Smalma finally tackles the question that so many of us have about Bull Trout and Dolly Varden. Which is which and does it matter?

Skagit Bull Trout Primer Ch 4: A Mystery - Dolly Varden or Bull Trout?

Skagit Bull Trout Primer Ch 4: A Mystery - Dolly Varden or Bull Trout? For decades the native char of the Skagit basin was thought to be Dolly Varden. The fish had access to the salt and some of the population spend time there foraging much like...

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