Hi Folks,
I posted something like this last year. Some people may not realize it is important to turn in the heads of clipped Coho, as well as clipped Chinook, to a DFO head drop-off site. Not only are these heads checked for coded wire tags, but genetic samples from all heads submitted by anglers are analyzed against samples collected at the hatcheries for something called parental based tagging, basically a genetic way of assigning fish back to hatcheries and even individual parents, even without a tag.
Also, I have a selfish motive for posting this. Our lab is analyzing growth rates of Coho Salmon in the Strait of Georgia using their otoliths (ear bones), in order to try to understand why some Coho are resident in the Strait in their second summer while others are not. We will get the otoliths from all 'resident' type Coho heads submitted to DFO (fish caught in the Strait in June and July). So please submit those heads!!!
I posted something like this last year. Some people may not realize it is important to turn in the heads of clipped Coho, as well as clipped Chinook, to a DFO head drop-off site. Not only are these heads checked for coded wire tags, but genetic samples from all heads submitted by anglers are analyzed against samples collected at the hatcheries for something called parental based tagging, basically a genetic way of assigning fish back to hatcheries and even individual parents, even without a tag.
Also, I have a selfish motive for posting this. Our lab is analyzing growth rates of Coho Salmon in the Strait of Georgia using their otoliths (ear bones), in order to try to understand why some Coho are resident in the Strait in their second summer while others are not. We will get the otoliths from all 'resident' type Coho heads submitted to DFO (fish caught in the Strait in June and July). So please submit those heads!!!