Marine survival of coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) from small coastal watersheds in Northern California

Graduation Date

2015

Document Type

Thesis

Program

Other

Program

Thesis (M.S.)--Humboldt State University, Natural Resources: Fisheries, 2015

Committee Chair Name

Darren M. Ward

Committee Chair Affiliation

HSU Faculty or Staff

Keywords

Humboldt State University -- Theses -- Fisheries

Abstract

California coho salmon Oncorhynchus kisutch populations are at low abundance and factors governing recruitment variability remain unclear. Changes in freshwater habitat that increase juvenile growth and size of salmon outmigrating to sea (smolts) may improve ocean survival. The best data to evaluate this among wild coho salmon populations in California come from life-cycle monitoring (LCM) stations. This study investigated whether marine survival is size-dependent (larger individuals within a cohort have higher marine survival) and whether sites and years with higher growth have higher marine survival across five LCM locations. I tested for size-dependent survival using two techniques: comparing the size of outmigrating smolts and back-calculated smolt sizes from scales of adult fish that survived to return; and using information from fish that were tagged as smolts and survived to return as adults. Analyses comparing smolt sizes back-calculated from adult scales and observed lengths from smolt traps indicated that within-year size-dependent mortality at sea occurred among many outmigrant cohorts, while analyses using smolt lengths of recaptured adult fish tagged as juveniles did not indicate any within-cohort size-selective mortality at sea. Potential explanations for the conflicting results include errors in scale back-calculation; smolts growing in habitats below smolt traps prior to ocean entrance; and fish with alternative juvenile life histories that were unaccounted for in outmigrant sampling surviving and contributing to the adult populations. In regressions across sites and years, marine survival was positively associated with early marine growth measured from the scales of surviving adult salmon and in some instances marine survival was also positively associated with mean fork length of outmigrating smolts. Although size may be an important determinant of ocean survival, this study shows that comparison of back-calculated smolts sizes from scales of adult fish and observed lengths of smolts at an upstream trapping location are unreliable approaches for testing size-selective mortality. This study also provides support for expanding studies at LCM stations to determine how juvenile coho salmon use habitat downstream of migrant trapping locations.

https://scholarworks.calstate.edu/concern/theses/cv43p014q

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