Abundance and distribution of the chinook salmon escapement on the Chickamin River, 1996
By: by Keith A. Pahlke.
Contributors: Alaska. Division of Sport Fish.
Series: Fishery data series -- no.97-28.
Publisher: Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game, Division of Sport Fish
Published: 1997
Place of publication: Anchorage
Language: eng
Number of pages: 40
Subjects: Chinook salmon -- Alaska -- Chickamin River -- Statistics.; Salmon fisheries -- Alaska -- Chickamin River.; Fish populations -- Alaska -- Chickamin River -- Measurement.
Description: The distribution and abundance of large chinook salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha that returned to spawn in the Chickamin River in 1996 was estimated by using radio telemetry and a mark-recapture experiment. Age, sex, and length compositions were estimated for the immigration. Set gillnets were used to capture 183 immigrant chinook salmon 660 mm in (mid-eye to fork) length during June, July, and August 1996; 174 fish were marked with spaghetti tags and opercle punches, and 112 of these also had radio transmitters inserted into their stomachs. One hundred and one (101) of the radio-tagged fish were tracked to spawning locations; 84 in survey index areas and 17 in unsurveyed streams. During August, 380 chinook salmon 660 mm long were captured at spawning sites and inspected for tags; 41 of these fish had been previously marked. A modified Petersen model (n1 = 174, n2 = 380, m2 = 41) estimated that 1,587 (SE = 199) chinook salmon 660 mm in length immigrated to the Chickamin River in 1996. Peak survey counts in August totaled 422 large chinook, about 27% of the estimated inriver run. From immigrant age and length composition data collected in gillnet and spawning ground samples, it was estimated that 5.7% of the gillnet catch was age-1.1, 14.0% was age-1.2, 47.7% age-1.3, 25.4% age-1.4, and 3.1% age-1.5 (96 males and 97 females) and that 2.4% of the spawning ground samples were age-1.1, 7.7% age-1.2, 56.5% age-1.3, 30.4% age-1.4, and 2.7% age-1.5 (180 males and 195 females).
Notes: "November 1997"

Includes bibliographical references (p. 20-21).

Also issued online.

Partially funded by the Federal Aid in Sport Fish Restoration Act (16 U.S.C. 777-777K) Project F-10-11, Job no. S-1-8.