Comparison of Radiotelemetry and Microsatellites for Determining the Origin of Yukon River Chinook Salmon

Abstract

Chinook salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha support important subsistence and commercial fisheries throughout the Yukon River. Low returns and diverse user groups have made management of these fisheries contentious and have necessitated information on the origin of the spawning migration and harvest. Here we compare estimates of individual assignment and stock composition derived from genetic and radiotelemetry data collected from the same Chinook salmon. Radiotelemetry and genetic individual assignments were highly concordant. Agreement between methods for individual assignment was 79% to region and 93% to country when using the most probable genetic criterion, improving to 94% for region and 98% for country when using the ≥95% probability genetic criterion; however, under the more stringent criterion, fewer individuals could be assigned. Further analysis showed that estimates of stock composition based on radiotelemetry and genetic methods were within 6% of each other and were not significantly different. The concordance between estimates of individual assignment and stock composition from the radiotelemetry and genetic methods indicates that both methods are credible tools for fishery assessment of Yukon River Chinook salmon. Received October 14, 2011; accepted April 17, 2012

Distribution, Stock Composition and Timing, and Tagging Response of Wild Chinook Salmon Returning to a Large, Free‐Flowing River Basin

“…Not all stocks were included in the GSI baseline used in that study, most notably fish returning to spawning areas in the Yukon Flats, which undoubtedly biased these estimates to some extent. Additional sampling was subsequently conducted in the basin using the [2002][2003][2004] telemetry data to enhance the GSI baseline (Templin et al 2006;Flannery et al 2012). Based on the updated information, the seasonal composition trends determined from mixed-stock fisheries in the lower Yukon River during 1987-1990 were similar to those observed during our study.…”

Baltic Sea genetic biodiversity: Current knowledge relating to conservation management

“…Other examples of recent genetic results already included in management plans, or expected to be so soon, include identification of genetically distinct units of seals and porpoise. New ways to analyse population genetic data jointly with data on individual movement and morphology (Flannery et al , ; Sveegaard et al , ), or population viability analysis (Olsen et al, ) have proven successful in delineating population boundaries and identifying new management units. Recommendations based on these studies to treat Baltic Sea harbour porpoise as a separate management unit are expected to be incorporated in management plans and include suggestions to protect breeding areas within the EU Natura2000 framework (Swedish Government Decision, Ministry of Environment and Energy, 2016–12‐14 M2015/02273/Nm; Mats Amundin, Linköping University, personal communication; Carlén et al in prep.).…”

Capture versus tagging impacts on chum salmon freshwater spawning migration travel times

“…This study specifically investigated chum salmon travel time, which is useful for assessing the validity of gastric radio tags to investigate the location and timing of spawning migration routes (e.g., Clark, Tanner, Sethi, Bentley, & Schindler, 2015;Keefer, Caudill, Peery, & Bjornn, 2006). Information on spawning migration patterns remains of interest for salmon habitat and fish passage management (Allen & Singh, 2016;Hagelin, Calles, Greenberg, Piccolo, & Bergman, 2016;Ray et al, 2015;Wirth et al, 2012); however, other uses of telemetry data to infer fish survival or to assess stock composition by estimating the proportion of fish destined for discrete spawning populations (e.g., Flannery et al, 2014;Sethi & Tanner, 2014) may require additional validation beyond comparisons of en route travel times to evaluate impacts from capture and tagging on spawning success and mortality of sampled fish.…”

“…Telemetry methods continue to be an important tool for describing Pacific salmon spawning ecology, providing information useful to identify spawning grounds (Eiler, Masuda, Spencer, Driscoll, & Schreck, ; Sethi & Tanner, ), validate sub‐population membership within mixed stocks (Flannery et al., ) and assess survival and depredation (Peirce, Otis, Wipfli, & Follmann, ; Ray, Sethi, Joyce, & Eiler, ). Valid ecological inference from telemetry, however, requires that tagged fish provide representative samples of the population at large, chiefly requiring that study subjects are unaffected by the tagging process.…”