Wild Salmonids in the Urban Environment: Lethal and Sublethal Effects

Maas-Hebner, Kathleen G.; Hughes, Robert M.; Schreck, Carl B.

doi:10.1007/978-1-4614-8818-7_12

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…Smoltswhether of wild or hatchery origin-are exposed to several challenges that are associated with moving from freshwater into marine areas that can affect their survival, including physiological and morphological changes, infectious agents, predators, and rapidly changing environmental conditions (Zimmerman and Ward 1999;Beamish et al 2004;Jeffries et al 2014;Bateman et al 2022). Furthermore, because community hatcheries are often situated in systems that have experienced physical and chemical changes associated with local urbanization, smolts released from these hatcheries may experience impairment to normal adaptive behaviors (e.g., predator avoidance), which can have implications for survival (Maas-Hebner et al 2014). Thus, investigating the migratory survival and behavior of smolts can potentially improve our understanding of the declines in Pacific salmon populations and can provide hatcheries with information about the effectiveness of their release strategies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, because community hatcheries are often situated in systems that have experienced physical and chemical changes associated with local urbanization, smolts released from these hatcheries may experience impairment to normal adaptive behaviors (e.g., predator avoidance), which can have implications for survival (Maas‐Hebner et al. 2014). Thus, investigating the migratory survival and behavior of smolts can potentially improve our understanding of the declines in Pacific salmon populations and can provide hatcheries with information about the effectiveness of their release strategies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Acoustic telemetry tracking of Coho Salmon smolts released from a community‐run hatchery into a marine inlet reveals low early ocean survival

Kanigan,

Hinch,

Lotto

et al. 2024

N American J Fish Manag

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ObjectiveHatcheries are used to help supplement populations of Pacific salmon Oncorhynchus spp. for conservation and fisheries purposes and to provide stewardship opportunities. In British Columbia, small community‐run hatcheries typically focus on the latter and generally do not know the efficacy of their release approaches, unlike larger production hatcheries.MethodsWe used acoustic telemetry to track the survival and behavior of 90 hatchery‐reared Coho Salmon O. kisutch smolts, released from a community hatchery, through Burrard Inlet and into the Strait of Georgia. This is the first study to track Coho Salmon smolts released directly into a marine environment and one of very few studies to track them in an oceanic setting.ResultSmolt survival was lowest through the first 3 km of the migration at 37%, and the estimated cumulative survival to the final array (~20 km from release) was 10–23%. The presence of numerous predators in the region suggests that predation is a possible explanation for poor survival over the relatively short migration distance. Travel rates ranged from ~4 to 18 km/day, depending on the migration segment, which is slower than the marine migration of smolts from other species, likely increasing exposure to predators. However, we found potential evidence of “predator swamping,” as survival estimates across migration segments were highest for the final of our three release groups and poorest for the first release group, with intergroup survival estimates increasing by 7–12% in the final three migration segments. Releasing smolts at high densities and at night, as our partner hatchery currently does, likely improves smolt survival.ConclusionOur work demonstrates how acoustic telemetry can be used to examine hatchery practices and propose potential improvements. Saltwater readiness and the release location are factors that our results suggest may warrant future attention to potentially improve marine survival of Coho Salmon smolts.

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