Atlantic Salmon Post-smolt Trawl and Troll Survey in the Strait of Belle Isle

Fisheries and Oceans Canada is providing funding via the Partnership Fund in the amount of $171,200 for the Atlantic Salmon Research Joint Venture and is funding research by Jonathan Carr of the Atlantic Salmon Federation. The joint venture is focused on the sustainability of Atlantic Salmon in the face of climate change.

This project allows partners of the Atlantic Salmon Research Joint Venture to determine the feasibility of employing various assessment techniques for migrating wild Atlantic salmon that will assist researchers to understand, and to potentially address, the underpinnings of at-sea mortality of Atlantic salmon. To understand and identify the reasons for salmon-at sea mortality, and current mortality rates double those of the 1970s and 1980s, researchers are investigating the Atlantic salmon from the time it enters the marine habitat as a smolt to its return to freshwater as a mature adult.

New knowledge will be gained on the Gulf of St. Lawrence salmon stock complex throughout its range from rivers, out through the Strait of Belle Isle (tracking population structure, sex and other biological characteristics) and a key goal is to learn how stocks are responding to changing ocean conditions, among other objectives. A report documenting the results of the project will be finalized in February 2018.

Project number: Gulf2016.21
Year(s): 2017, 2018
Partner: Atlantic Salmon Federation, Atlantic Salmon Research Joint Venture
Principal Investigator: Dr. Jonathan Carr
Eco-region: Atlantic