developing a nomenclature for steelhead, coho, cutthroat and other anadromous salmonids with...

DEVELOPING A NOMENCLATURE FOR STEELHEAD, COHO, CUTTHROAT AND

OTHER ANADROMOUS SALMONIDS WITH EXTENDED FRESHWATER REARING

Hal Michael, John McMillan, Bob Gresswell, Leon Shaul, Bob Leland, Joan Trial

WHAT AND WHY?

• Knowledge of life history “oddities” has advanced but terminology has not

• What we call a fish, or how their behaviour is described, does not always mesh

• A group is beginning to work to develop a unified nomenclature for these fish

A HATCHERY STEELHEAD CAN

1 Smolt as age-1, after stocking

2 Smolt as an age 2 or an age 33 Stay permanently in freshwater4 Die

If it stays in freshwater after stocking it is called a residual

A WILD STEELHEAD CAN

1. Smolt as an age 12. Smolt as an age 2 or 3 or 4 or..3. Stay permanently in freshwater4. Die

It has no special name, yet it and the hatchery fish behave in the same manner. Is an age 1+ non-smolted wild mykiss a residual?

STRAY, HOME STREAM FIDELITY

• Wild migratory salmonids are believed to have very accurate homing instinct, some few who do not home accurately are said to stray.

• A variety of studies on hatchery origin fish show significantly less accuracy in homing; they are called strays

STRAY, HOME STREAM FIDELITY II

• Studies with non-lethal tags have shown some interesting results– A wild steelhead smolts from Stream A and returns to Stream B– A wild steelhead spawns in Stream A and repeat-spawns in Stream

B– A wild steelhead spawns in Streams A&B in the same year

– And the home stream is ???

STRAY, HOME STREAM FIDELITYSTRAY III

• Sea-run cutthroat smolt from Stream A and overwinter in Stream B-these are called “Feeders”

• Adult sea-run cutthroat overwinter in Stream A and them move to Stream B to spawn

• Where’s “home?”

T                                                                                                                                                                                                 The big unanswered question: Where would it have gone to spawn?

An Alaskan coho: a brood year 1997 coho smolt ---- that originated who-knows-where---- spent the summer of 1998 in marine/estuarine waters, entered the Chilkat with the returning nomad migration in Fall 1998, was caught and CWT’d somewhere 5–26 km up the Chilkat between April 7 and June 2, 1999, re-entered saltwater and swam a minimum 67 km down and across Lynn Canal to the mouth of the Berners River where it joined the fall nomad migration up that system for 8 km to a Beaver Pond from which it was recaptured in a downstream migrant trough trap on May 17, 2000 at fork length of 126 mm. A second tagged Chilkat fish (length 127 mm) was recovered leaving the same pond 9 days later, but it had only been in saltwater during summer 1999, right after tagging, and had lived a “normal” coho existence in its first year. The big unanswered question: Where would it have gone to spawn?

STRAY, HOME STREAM FIDELITYSTRAY IV

• Coho that smolt from Stream A and overwinter in Stream B, and maybe C, return to what home stream and what stream would they be a “stray”?

• Currently, these coho are called Nomads

SMOLTS

• Everybody knows that salmonids smolt in the spring

• Except for coho and steelhead that also smolt in the fall

THE GOAL

Develop a consistent nomenclature for PNW anadromous salmonids,

concentrating on steelhead but recognizing that their life history

patterns may occur in coho, cutthroat, native char, Atlantic salmon, sea trout,

and coasters

KELTS

• We call a post-spawning trout a kelt• When I named a post-spawning

lamprey a kelt I was told this applies only to Atlantic salmon

• A “resident” mykiss that spawns and then smolts is a smolt-kelt?

IF YOU WANT TO PARTICIPATE

Contact Hal Michael at ucd880@comcast.net

We will then organize the group, divide up tasks, and move ahead.