Andrew Harbicht, Martin Österling, and Olle Calles from Karlstad University and Anders Nilsson of Lund University have a new paper out. By radio tagging Atlantic salmon smolt and following them along their downstream migration to the Baltic, they quantified the effect of both a dam and a reservoir on migratory rates while accounting for environmental covariates. The good news for salmon, if reservoirs are kept thin (river-like), and mitigative measures are taken at a dam (i.e., spilling water during the smolt migration), the effects of anthropogenic barriers can be dramatically reduced. Read more about the paper here: https://doi.org/10.1002/rra.3760

PhD-defense: Conservation of landlocked Atlantic salmon in a regulated river

On Friday 12 April, Anna Hagelin will defend her PhD-thesis “Conservation of landlocked Atlantic salmon in a regulated river – Behaviour of migratory spawners and juveniles”. The defense will take place at 10:00 in room 1B309 (Sjöströmssalen) at Karlstad University. Everyone is welcome to attend the defense.

Ian Fleming (Memorial University of Newfoundland (Canada) will be the opponent and Jaakko Erkinaro (Natural Resources Institute, Finland), Eva Thorstad (Norwegian institute for Nature Research, Norway) and John Armstrong (Marine Scotland Science Freshwater Fisheries Laboratory, Scotland) constitute the grading committee.

 

Mini-symposium on Atlantic salmon

On Thursday 11 April, a mini-symposium on Atlantic salmon will be held in room 5F322 at Karlstad University, where the visiting researchers will give presentations:

 

14:00-14:30: Ian Fleming, Memorial University of Newfoundland. Life-history dependent migration strategies in Atlantic salmon 

14:30-15:00: Jaakko Erkinaro, Natural Resources Institute Finland. Diversity in Atlantic salmon – evolutionary ecology and management implications 

15:00-15:30: Coffee break

15:30-16:00: Eva Thorstad, Norwegian Institute for Nature Research. Status of salmon in Norway and importance of the ocean phase 

16:00-16:30: John Armstrong, Marine Scotland Science Freshwater Fisheries Laboratory. Current and future applications of science for management of salmon in Scotland

CANCELED SEMINAR

On Tuesdag, 20 September, David Aldvén from the University of Gothenburg, was to give a seminar titled ”Downstream migration of anadromous brown trout”. David Aldvén recently finished his PhD with a thesis titled “Migration in anadromous brown trout”. The frame of his thesis is available online here.

The seminar has been CANCELED.

Den vetenskapliga artikeln ”Post-spawning survival and downstream passage of landlocked Atlantic salmon (salmo salar) in a regulated river: is there potential for repeat spawning?”, om efterleksöverlevnad, nedströmsmigration och passage hos lax-kelt i Klarälven, har publicerats i River Research and Applications. Författare är Daniel Nyqvist, Olle Calles, Eva Bergman, Anna Hagelin och Larry Greenberg.

I abstraktet skriver författarna: “Repeat salmonid spawners may make large contributions to total recruitment and long term population stability. Despite their potential importance, relatively little is known about this phase of the life history for anadromous populations, and nothing has been reported for landlocked populations. Here, we studied post-spawning behaviour and survival of landlocked Atlantic salmon in relation to downstream dam passage in the River Klarälven, Sweden. Eight hydropower stations separate the feeding grounds in Lake Vänern from the spawning grounds in the River Klarälven, and no measures to facilitate downstream migration are present in the river. Forty-nine percent of the salmon survived spawning and initiated downstream migration. Females and small fish had higher post-spawning survival than males and large fish. The postspawners migrated downstream in autumn and spring and remained relatively inactive in the river during winter. Downstream migration speed in the free flowing part of the river was highly variable with a median of 9.30 km/day. Most fish passed the first hydropower station via upward-opening spill gates after a median residence time in the forebay of 25 min. However, no tagged fish survived passage of all eight hydropower stations to reach Lake Vänern. This result underscores the need for remedial measures to increase the survival of downstream migrating kelts.”

Läs artikeln här. Om du inte har tillgång till tidskriftens innehåll men ändå vill läsa artikeln, maila någon av författarna!

I “Krafttag Ål – summering av programmet 2011-14” presenteras forskning och undersökningar inom Kraftag ål, ett samarbete mellan vattenkraftföretag och Havs- och vattenmyndigheten kring insatser för ålens bevarande. Forskningen har bland annat handlat om migrationen som sådan, uppströms- och nedströmspassage och populationsmodelleringar. NRRV har varit inblandat i flera av forskningsprojekten.

Summeringen presenteras enligt följande: “Denna skrift presenterar verksamheten inom programmet Krafttag ål under åren 2011 – 2014. Bakgrunden till programmet är en frivillig avsiktsförklaring som tecknades 2010 mellan ett antal vattenkraftföretag och Fiskeriverket, för att öka överlevnaden hos utvandrande ål. Havs- och vattenmyndigheten  övertog sedermera Fiskeriverkets roll. Programmet startades i syfte att omsätta avsiktsförklaringen till handling. Verksamhet var uppdelad i två delar; en åtgärdsdel och en del med forskning och  utveckling (FoU).”

Läs skriften här:

Laxens migration, både i älven och till havs, är ett spektakulärt och fascinerande biologiskt fenomen. Här skriver BBC om en nyligen publicerad studie om hur Stillahavslax verkar orientera utifrån sin position i förhållande till jordens magnetfält. Klicka på bilden för att läsa BBC-artikeln och på länken ovan för att komma direkt till den vetenskapliga artikeln.

Vi sysslar en hel del med att märka fiskar med sändare (radiosändare, PIT-tags, akustiska sändare) för att sedan följa deras rörelser i olika vattendrag. I allt från Vänerns Vänerns mynning till småbäckar.

Här är ett kort föredrag från TED-talks om att spåra stora fiskars vida rörelelser i oceanen.

Så småningom kanske det blir dags att närmare kartlägga fiskarnas vandringar i våran egen insjöocean? 

After the first capture was recently recorded of young eels in the traps in Ätran, a trap has also been constructed and placed into Alsterälven to try and assess if there is any upstream migration of juvenille eel ‘elvers’. Traps have not been placed before to research for the upstream migration in Alster so it will be exciting to discover, if, there is infact any migration via Vänern to the river.

Image 3 indicates the movements of water, and hopeful movements of elvers over the trap. The blue line shows the direction of syphoned upstream water down over the ‘eel matting’ to re-create a natural flow of water. The red lines show the potential movement of elvers up the slope, through the piping and into the collection bin.

The pink lines show true artistic talent of ‘life-like’ elvers crawling up ready for the drop into the collection bin.

The first night revealed no hidden jewels so maybe it a waiting game like waiting for Santa to arrive..

/Joe