Long-distance anadromous migration in a fresh water specialist: the Lake Trout (<em>Salvelinus namaycush</em>)

Abstract

. 2014. Long-distance anadromous migration in a fresh water specialist: the Lake Trout (Salvelinus namaycush). Canadian Field-Naturalist 128(3): 260-264.The Lake Trout, Salvelinus namaycush, is believed to be one of the most saline intolerant salmonid species, typically completing its life wholly in fresh water. Historical observations and more recent quantitative assessments have shown, however, that in some Arctic populations, Lake Trout can migrate to marine waters (i.e., display anadromy). In the four coastal Arctic populations of Lake Trout where anadromy has been confirmed, migrations to and from marine environments are relatively short (i.e., in the order of a few kilometres). In the Halokvik River on Victoria Island, we captured two anadromous Lake Trout in a weir used jointly for commercial fishing and stock assessment research. Both fish were captured during the fall upstream migration, some 50 km from their presumed fresh water spawning or overwintering locations. This observation extends the current knowledge regarding the distribution of anadromous populations in this species and suggests that migration to marine habitats can be much longer than previously expected.

Reliance on lakes by salmon, trout and charr (Oncorhynchus,SalmoandSalvelinus): An evaluation of spawning habitats, rearing strategies and trophic polymorphisms

“…Anadromous Arctic charr may migrate to the ocean as fry, rear in streams or lakes for over a year prior to initial ocean entry as juveniles or exclusively utilize lakes as overwintering habitat (Gyselman, ; Gyselman & Broughton, ; Jensen, ; Moore, ; Mulder, Morris, Dempson, Fleming, & Power, ). In contrast, all anadromous lake trout rear in a lake for multiple years (up to 29) prior to the initial migration and return to a lake to overwinter between annual ocean migrations (Harris, Moore, McDermid, & Swanson, ; Kissinger et al., , ; Swanson, ; Swanson et al., ). In the rare adfluvial populations of lake trout and Arctic charr, it is unknown whether they migrate from the natal stream to a lake as age 0+ fry or age 1+ or older juveniles ( S. namaycush —Dymond, ; Loftus, ; S. alpinus —Gordeeva et al., ).…”

Do genetic drift and accumulation of deleterious mutations preclude adaptation? Empirical investigation using RADseq in a northern lacustrine fish

“…North American Lake Trout populations have recolonized their current geographic range between 6,000 and 15,000 YBP from several southern refugia (Wilson & Hebert, , ). While some rare Lake Trout populations live in rivers (McCracken, Perry, Keefe, & Ruzzante, ), and even more rarely make anadromous migrations (Harris, Moore, McDermid, & Swanson, ), most of the populations are lake specialists and have been isolated in lakes of various sizes shaped after the isostatic rebound and glacial scouring during the last glacial retreat (Wilson & Mandrak, ). As a result of population isolation with limited or no gene flow between them, pronounced genetic differentiation has been documented among populations and effective population size as well as allelic richness is small compared to other freshwater species (Halbisen & Wilson, ; Northrup, Connor, & Taylor, ; Valiquette, Perrier, Thibault, & Bernatchez, ).…”

Movement Ecology of a Potamodromous Top Predator in a Large Lake: Synchrony and Coexistence of Distinct Migratory Patterns

“…Since the early 1970s, different genetic strains of Lake Trout have been stocked in Lake Ontario by U.S. and Canadian agencies in an effort to reestablish self-sustaining populations (Elrod et al 1996). Lake Trout are a long-lived, iteroparous species that inhabit cold waters (Stewart et al 1983) and are known to exhibit resident (i.e., nonmigratory) potamodromous or anadromous migratory strategies with the existence of contingents (Muhlfeld et al 2012;Harris et al 2014;Binder et al 2017;Riley et al 2018). The species' general movements in large lakes are known mainly from surveys and markrecapture studies, with few examples of acoustic telemetry tracking (Landsman et al 2011).…”