Research Document - 1999/050

Status of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) in the Tabusintac River in 1998 and summary of the 1996 stock assessment.

By S.G. Douglass, D. Swasson, R.G. Bradford, and M. Joe

Abstract

Esgenoôpetitj First Nation and the recreational angling community harvested Atlantic salmon from the Tabusintac River in 1998. First Nation food fishery removals of small salmon (n =18) and large salmon (n =18) were 16% and 6% of the respective communal allocations. A telephone creel survey conducted for public water angling during the 1998 season, indicated that total bright salmon catches were about 25% of the previous five year mean. Low reported catches in 1998 for both large (n =32) and small (n =39) salmon on leased water were attributed to high water conditions. Total returns of Atlantic salmon to the Tabusintac River in 1998 were estimated from a mark-recapture experiment using tags applied at an estuary trapnet and the combined catches and recaptures from an upstream (recapture) trapnet and the angling fishery in leased waters. Most probable combined total returns, generated by a Bayes algorithm, were estimated to be 2900 fish. Large and small salmon components were estimated using the ratio of large to small salmon captured in both the marking and recapture trapnets and the associated probabilities from the Bayesian method. Large and small salmon returns were estimated to be 1200 and 1800 fish respectively. After accounting for removals, large salmon spawning escapement was estimated to be 1180 fish while small salmon spawning escapement was estimated to be 1766 fish. Total estimated egg deposition was 364% of the conservation requirement. Due to the small number of recaptured tags in 1998, it is suspected that returns may have been overestimated, however, the probability of having achieved sufficient numbers of large and small salmon to meet the conservation requirement was 100% for both. A sufficient time series of information on stock status has not been accumulated to forecast either total returns or harvestable surplus.

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