Research Document - 2015/019
The status of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) on Prince Edward Island (SFA 17) in 2013
By D.K. Cairns and R.E. MacFarlane
Abstract
This paper summarizes Atlantic salmon status on Prince Edward Island (PEI) to 2013. The number of PEI rivers containing Atlantic salmon was approximately 71 at the time of European contact, 28 in 2000-2002, 22 in 2007-2008, and approximately 26 currently. Reported aboriginal Food Social and Ceremonial (FSC) harvests were three salmon retained in 2012 and no harvests in 2013. The public recreational salmon fishery on PEI has been catch-and-release only since 2009. Conservation requirements are estimated to be about 4.9 million eggs, equivalent to about 1,098 female spawners, for the 26 rivers currently occupied by salmon. On the basis of the most recent redd counts, spawners on PEI total 1,246 salmon, of which 721 were females, which produced 3.5 million eggs. These numbers should be viewed as a generalization for recent years, since estimates for some rivers are based on redd counts conducted prior to 2013. Estimated egg production is 71% of conservation requirements for the 26 current salmon rivers. Available data series (redds, juvenile densities) have poor temporal and geographic coverage, which limits the ability to infer trends in salmon status. However it is clear that salmon status has improved greatly in a cluster of northeast PEI rivers which have been subject to intensive habitat rehabilitation. Uncertainty and knowledge gaps in this review include lack of recreational catch estimates, unreliable determination of salmon presence in some rivers, poor or dated data on biological characteristics and spawner to redd ratios used in conservation requirement calculations, and poor trend data.
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