North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission

Technical Report 23

Table of Contents

Trends in Size of Mature Sockeye and Pink Salmon Near the Southern Limit of their Range in the Eastern Pacific Ocean

Authors:
Dejan Brkic, Eric Taylor, Angela Phung, and Stephen Latham

Abstract Excerpt:
Size of salmon is of great importance to their value. In fisheries, body size affects the monetary and food value of the catch. On the spawning grounds, body size affects egg size, fecundity, and nutrient transport to natal locations from the ocean. Declines in body size have been reported for Chinook (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha), chum (O. keta), pink (O. gorbuscha) and sockeye (O. nerka) salmon in the eastern North Pacific Ocean (Losee et al. 2019; Oke et al. 2020) and have been linked to climate change and increased competition from pink and sockeye salmon (Connors et al. 2020; but see Neville and Beamish 2022). Over the same period of body size decline, salmon abundances in the North Pacific have been increasing (Ruggerone and Irvine 2018) while total biomass has remained stable since 1993, implying a carrying capacity limitation. Our goal was to show how body size in Fraser River sockeye and pink salmon has changed over time using data collected by the Pacific Salmon Commission (PSC), and to relate those changes in body size to estimates of salmon abundance in the North Pacific Ocean.

*This is the first paragraph of an extended abstract. Download the full abstract below.

DOI:
https://doi.org/10.23849/npafctr23/9as7-ss

Citation

Brkic, D., E. Taylor, A. Phung, and S. Latham.  2024.  Trends in size of mature sockeye and pink salmon near the southern limit of their range in the eastern Pacific Ocean.  N. Pac. Anadr. Fish Comm. Tech. Rep. 23: 61–63.  https://doi.org/10.23849/npafctr23/9as7-ss