Spawning Migration and Survival of Atlantic Salmon in Lake Melville, Labrador: Improving Our Knowledge for Subsistence Fisheries Management

Fisheries and Oceans Canada provided $57,500 via the Partnership Fund to this project in Lake Melville, Labrador. Atlantic Salmon from Lake Melville, Labrador (a marine estuary) are a genetically distinct population. There are three types of fisheries currently harvesting the stock: the aboriginal fishery of the Innu of Nunatsiavut and NunatuKavut, Labrador residents and recreational, but there is no monitoring of the river populations contributing to the fisheries and little knowledge of their movements and survival. Fisheries and Oceans Canada is providing funding under the Science Partnership Plan to the Renewable Resources Department of the Nunatsiavut Government, for a project to train staff and use various acoustic telemetry techniques, to determine the migration patterns, habitat preferences, freshwater spawning areas and survival of Lake Melville Atlantic Salmon.

A scientific report summarizing the tagging program and salmon migration and survival through Lake Melville will be compiled by the collaborating groups and submitted for publication in a peer-reviewed scientific journal. Study results will also be presented at the Labrador Salmon Workshop the NL Region Atlantic Salmon Stock Assessment (2018) and the Canadian Conference for Fisheries Research (Jan. 2019).

Project number: NFLD2017.2
Year: 2017
Partner: Renewable Resources Department of Nunatsiavut
Lead: Todd Broomfield
Eco-region: Arctic, Atlantic