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Lack of trophic competition among wild and hatchery juvenile chum salmon during early marine residence in Taku Inlet, Southeast Alaska

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Abstract

Early marine trophic interactions of wild and hatchery chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta) were examined as a potential cause for the decline in harvests of adult wild chum salmon in Taku Inlet, Southeast Alaska. In 2004 and 2005, outmigrating juvenile chum salmon were sampled in nearshore habitats of the inlet (spring) and in epipelagic habitat at Icy Strait (summer) as they approached the Gulf of Alaska. Fish were frozen for energy density determination or preserved for diet analyses, and hatchery stocks were identified from the presence of thermal marks on otoliths. We compared feeding intensity, diets, energy density, and size relationships of wild and hatchery stocks (n = 3123) across locations and weeks. Only hatchery fish feeding intensity was negatively correlated with fish abundance. In both years, hatchery chum salmon were initially larger and had greater energy density than wild fish, but lost condition in early weeks after release as they adapted to feeding on wild prey assemblages. Diets differed between the stocks at all inlet locations, but did not differ for hatchery salmon between littoral and neritic habitats in the outer inlet, where the stocks overlapped most. Both diets and energy density converged by late June. Therefore, if density-dependent interactions affect wild chum salmon, these effects must be very rapid because survivors in Icy Strait showed few differences. Our study also demonstrates that hatchery release strategies used near Taku Inlet successfully promote early spatial segregation and prey partitioning, which reduce the probability of competition between wild and hatchery chum salmon stocks.

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Notes

  1. Reference to trade names does not imply endorsement by the National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA

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Acknowledgments

This cooperative investigation by the Alaska Fisheries Science Center’s Auke Bay Laboratories, the University of Alaska Fairbanks, School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADFG), and DIPAC Incorporated was supported by the Pacific Coast Salmon Restoration Fund administered by the ADFG through the Southeast Sustainable Salmon Fund. The SECM work was also supported by the Pacific Salmon Commission Northern Fund. We dedicate this work to J. Landingham and L. Macaulay, and we thank D. Teersteg, B. Meredith, M. Wunderlich, S. Ballard, K. Hock, C. Farrington, B. Howard, M. Kohan, J. Mitchell, D. Rhea-Fournier, the officers and crew of NOAA ship John N. Cobb, and Capt. R. Dobrydnia of the chartered vessel F/V Teasha for field sampling and laboratory assistance, and two anonymous reviewers. The findings and conclusions in the paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA.

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Correspondence to Molly V. Sturdevant.

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Sturdevant, M.V., Fergusson, E., Hillgruber, N. et al. Lack of trophic competition among wild and hatchery juvenile chum salmon during early marine residence in Taku Inlet, Southeast Alaska. Environ Biol Fish 94, 101–116 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-011-9899-7

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