OldBlackDog
Well-Known Member
UBC salmon tracking studies find mortality hotspots, migration bottlenecks
A professor in the Forest and Conservation Sciences Department at University of British Columbia is conducting groundbreaking research to protect wild Pacific salmon, becoming the first to use innovative small fish tracking and health monitoring methods to ensure more successfully make it to spawning grounds.
Randy Shore
Updated: December 18, 2018
Scientists in the Scott Hinch lab use trackers to learn the secrets of salmon. Scott Hinch Lab / PNG
Scientists are using high-tech to identify and locate the gauntlet of threats facing wild salmon, particularly in the fresh water environment.
Fewer than 10 per cent of juvenile salmon even make it out of the river to live their adult lives, according to research from Scott Hinch’s lab at UBC.
Young researchers there are combining tiny sophisticated tracking devices, underwater telemetry and health diagnostics to find the hotspots where Pacific salmon are dying and to learn why.
Bull trout, for instance, lie in wait for juvenile sockeye at “pinch points” where the fish crowd together to leave lakes for the river systems on their journey to the sea.
“We knew there was mortality in the fresh water environment, but we weren’t really aware of how intense it was in such a narrow window of their life history,” said Hinch.
They placed transmitters on both species to see a high-stakes “cat and mouse game” with the trout moving into place ahead of their prey just before they leave the lake, while the sockeye try to slip through under cover of darkness.
Hinch, a professor in UBC’s department of forest and conservation sciences, has earned the Mitacs Award for Exceptional Leadership-Professor for his pioneering work and for supervising dozens of Mitacs-funded internships for young scientists.
His Mitacs interns have published more than 20 research papers.
The lab employs a variety of transmitters — some small enough to place on a smolt under six inches — and mobile receivers to answer research questions specific to different parts of the life journey of the salmon.
“Sometimes we are focused near the spawning area, sometimes in the lower Fraser River,” he said.
The smallest transmitters can be attached to one-year-old juveniles just a few inches long and can provide location and mortality information for about 32 days, enough time for sockeye to swim from their lake nurseries to the northern tip of Vancouver Island.
“That technology was a game-changer because we can use them on smaller sockeye at an earlier age,” said Hinch.
In addition to tagging the fish with transmitters, the researchers take tissue samples to determine the health of the fish and identify genetic factors that may help some fish succeed where others fail.
Among the system’s notable real-world successes is a collaboration with B.C. Hydro, a First Nations firm St’át’imc Eco Resources and the Pacific Salmon Foundation to assess the impact of water releases by hydroelectric dams on migrating spawners.
B.C. Hydro was able to implement operational changes that allow an extra 10 to 15 per cent more fish through to their spawning grounds.
A professor in the Forest and Conservation Sciences Department at University of British Columbia is conducting groundbreaking research to protect wild Pacific salmon, becoming the first to use innovative small fish tracking and health monitoring methods to ensure more successfully make it to spawning grounds.
Randy Shore
Updated: December 18, 2018
Scientists in the Scott Hinch lab use trackers to learn the secrets of salmon. Scott Hinch Lab / PNG
Scientists are using high-tech to identify and locate the gauntlet of threats facing wild salmon, particularly in the fresh water environment.
Fewer than 10 per cent of juvenile salmon even make it out of the river to live their adult lives, according to research from Scott Hinch’s lab at UBC.
Young researchers there are combining tiny sophisticated tracking devices, underwater telemetry and health diagnostics to find the hotspots where Pacific salmon are dying and to learn why.
Bull trout, for instance, lie in wait for juvenile sockeye at “pinch points” where the fish crowd together to leave lakes for the river systems on their journey to the sea.
“We knew there was mortality in the fresh water environment, but we weren’t really aware of how intense it was in such a narrow window of their life history,” said Hinch.
They placed transmitters on both species to see a high-stakes “cat and mouse game” with the trout moving into place ahead of their prey just before they leave the lake, while the sockeye try to slip through under cover of darkness.
Hinch, a professor in UBC’s department of forest and conservation sciences, has earned the Mitacs Award for Exceptional Leadership-Professor for his pioneering work and for supervising dozens of Mitacs-funded internships for young scientists.
His Mitacs interns have published more than 20 research papers.
The lab employs a variety of transmitters — some small enough to place on a smolt under six inches — and mobile receivers to answer research questions specific to different parts of the life journey of the salmon.
“Sometimes we are focused near the spawning area, sometimes in the lower Fraser River,” he said.
The smallest transmitters can be attached to one-year-old juveniles just a few inches long and can provide location and mortality information for about 32 days, enough time for sockeye to swim from their lake nurseries to the northern tip of Vancouver Island.
“That technology was a game-changer because we can use them on smaller sockeye at an earlier age,” said Hinch.
In addition to tagging the fish with transmitters, the researchers take tissue samples to determine the health of the fish and identify genetic factors that may help some fish succeed where others fail.
Among the system’s notable real-world successes is a collaboration with B.C. Hydro, a First Nations firm St’át’imc Eco Resources and the Pacific Salmon Foundation to assess the impact of water releases by hydroelectric dams on migrating spawners.
B.C. Hydro was able to implement operational changes that allow an extra 10 to 15 per cent more fish through to their spawning grounds.
