Spawning abundance of chinook salmon in the Taku River in 1996
By: by Scott A. McPherson....[et al.].
Contributors: McPherson, Scott A.; Alaska. Division of Sport Fish.
Series: Fishery data series -- no. 97-14.
Publisher: Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game, Division of Sport Fish, Research and Technical Services
Published: 1997
Place of publication: Anchorage
Language: eng
Number of pages: 24
Subjects: Chinook salmon -- Alaska -- Taku River -- Statistics.; Fish tagging -- Alaska -- Taku River -- Statistics.; Fish populations -- Alaska -- Taku River -- Statistics.; Chinook salmon -- Spawning.
Description: A cooperative study involving the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, the Taku River Tlingit First Nation, and the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans was conducted to estimate the number of spawning chinook salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha in the Taku River in 1996 with a mark-recapture experiment. Fish were captured at Canyon Island on the lower Taku River with fish wheels from May through August and were individually marked with back-sewn, solid-core spaghetti tags and were batch marked as well with an opercle punch plus removal of the left axillary appendage. Sampling on the spawning grounds in tributaries was used to estimate the fraction of the population that had been marked. Spawning abundance of medium-size chinook salmon (401-659 mm long; mid-eye to fork of tail) was estimated to be 10,402 (SE = 1,553). Estimated spawning abundance of large-size fish (660 mm) was 79,019 (SE = 9,048), and the estimated total of medium and large fish was 89,421 (SE = 9,180). Estimated abundance of the larger fish from aerial surveys of parts of the Taku River was 25% of the mark-recapture estimate, a trend repeated from similar studies in 1989, 1990 and 1995. The 1991 brood year (mostly age 1.3) constituted an estimated 78% of the age-.2 to age-.5 spawning population, followed by the 1990 brood year (mostly age 1.4), which constituted an estimated 12% of the population.
Notes: "July 1997"

Includes bibliographical references (p. 15-16)

Also issued online.