Assessing the outcomes of stocking hatchery-reared juveniles in the presence of wild Atlantic salmon

Stocking of hatchery-reared juvenile Atlantic Salmon Salmo salar is a common enhancement and recovery strategy across jurisdictions, yet its impact remains uncertain. We investigate the potential effectiveness of stocking in the Miramichi River system where approximately 150,000 first-feeding fry ar...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environmental biology of fishes 2017-07, Vol.100 (7), p.877-887
Main Authors: Wallace, Ben G., Curry, R. Allen
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal Systematics/Taxonomy/Biogeography
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Capacity
Density
Density dependence
Environment
Feeding
Fish hatcheries
Forecasting
Freshwater & Marine Ecology
Freshwater fishes
Fry
Habitats
Juveniles
Least squares method
Life Sciences
Marine fishes
Mathematical models
Nature Conservation
Prediction models
Recovery
Regression
Salmo salar
Salmon
Saturation
Stocking
System effectiveness
Zoology
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Summary:Stocking of hatchery-reared juvenile Atlantic Salmon Salmo salar is a common enhancement and recovery strategy across jurisdictions, yet its impact remains uncertain. We investigate the potential effectiveness of stocking in the Miramichi River system where approximately 150,000 first-feeding fry are stocked annually in reaches where wild juveniles are present. Local site and landscape level characteristics were used to fit predictive models for wild parr densities measured as Percent Habitat Saturation (PHS) using Partial Least Squares Regression (PLSR). The observed PHS of stocked sites was found to be significantly lower than predicted, suggesting stocking has not been effective in increasing the PHS in the studied stocked sites. The results suggest that habitat and other density dependent effects limit productive capacity in this system, and consequently, may limit the effectiveness of stocking in other systems with natural production.
ISSN:0378-1909
1573-5133
DOI:10.1007/s10641-017-0613-2