North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission

Technical Report 15

Table of Contents

A PIT Tag Based Method for Investigating Survival of Juvenile Cowichan River Chinook during their First Year of Life

Authors:
Kevin A. Pellett, Will Duguid, Jeramy Damborg, and Jamieson Atkinson

Abstract Excerpt:
Early marine survival is a critical factor driving the productivity of many salmonid stocks including Chinook salmon. Understanding the factors which control survival and how mortality is distributed across space and time is critical to identifying management actions which improve adult abundance. Despite a growing body of research much has yet to be discovered but with the application of new technologies the answers to long standing questions are in reach. In this project, we implemented Passive Integrated Transponder (PIT) tags to track four cohorts of natural and hatchery origin Cowichan River Chinook from juveniles to return. Uniquely coded tags allowed the fate of individuals to be tracked so that successful fish within a tag group could be compared to peers. Survival to return estimates were able to be created at four different points in time to reveal spatial and temporal variability at a resolution beyond current published research.

*This is the first paragraph of an extended abstract. Download the full abstract below.

DOI:
https://doi.org/10.23849/npafctr15/178.181.

Citation

Pellett, K.A., W. Duguid, J. Damborg, and J. Atkinson.  2019.  A PIT tag based method for investigating survival of juvenile Cowichan River Chinook during their first year of life.  N. Pac. Anadr. Fish Comm. Tech. Rep. 15: 178–181.  https://doi.org/10.23849/npafctr15/178.181.