Abstract
Wild stocks of chum salmon, Oncorhynchus keta, have experienced recent declines in some areas of their range. Also, the release of hatchery chum salmon has escalated to nearly three billion fish annually. The decline of wild stocks and the unknown effects of hatchery fish combined with the uncertainty of future production caused by global climate change have renewed interest in the migratory patterns of chum salmon on the high seas. We studied the composition of high-seas mixtures of maturing and immature individuals using baseline data for 20 allozyme loci from 356 populations from throughout the Pacific Rim. Composition estimates were made from three time series. Two of these time series were from important coastal migratory corridors: the Shumagin Islands south of the Alaska Peninsula and the east coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula. The third was from chum salmon captured incidentally in the Bering Sea trawl fishery for walleye pollock. We also analyzed geographically dispersed collections of chum salmon captured in the month of July. The time series show dynamic changes in stock composition. The Shumagin Island corridor was used primarily by Northwest Alaskan and Asian populations in June; by the end of July stocks from the Alaska Peninsula and southern North America dominated the composition. The composition along the Kamchatka coast changed dramatically from primarily Russian stocks in May to primarily Japanese stocks in August; the previously undocumented presence of stocks from the Alaska Peninsula and Gulf of Alaska was also demonstrated. Immature chum salmon from throughout the Pacific Rim, including large proportions of southern North American stocks, contributed to the Bering Sea bycatch during the months of September and October. The migration routes of North American stocks is far more widespread than previously observed, and the Bering Sea is an important rearing area for maturing and immature chum salmon from throughout the species' range.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Beamish, R.J. & D.R. Bouillon. 1993. Pacific salmon production trends in relation to climate. Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 50: 1002–1016.
Brannon, E.L. 1984. Influence of stock origin of salmon migratory behavior. pp. 103–111. In: J.D. McCleave (ed.) Mechanisms of Migration in Fishes. NATO Conference Series IV, Marine Sciences Vol. 14, Plenum Press, New York.
Cavalli-Sforza, L.L. & A.W.F. Edwards. 1967. Phylogenetic analysis: Models and estimation procedures. Evolution 21: 550–570.
Chakraborty, R. & O. Leimar. 1987. Genetic variation within a subdivided population. pp. 89–120. In: N. Ryman & F.M. Utter (ed.) Population Genetics and Fishery Management, University of Washington Press, Seattle.
Debevec, E.M., R.B. Gates, M. Masuda, J. Pella, J. Reynolds & L.W. Seeb. 2000. SPAM (Version 3.2): Statistics program for analyzing mixtures. J. Hered. 91: 509–511.
Farley, E.V. Jr. & K. Munk. 1997. Incidence of thermally marked pink and chum salmon in the coastal water of the Gulf of Alaska. Alaska Fish. Res. Bull. 4: 181–187.
Gilbert, C.H. & W.H. Rich. 1926. Second experiment in tagging salmon in the Alaska Peninsula fisheries reservation, summer of 1923. Bull. U.S. Bureau Fish. 42: 27–75.
Kaeriyama, M. 1998. Dynamics of chum salmon, Oncorhynchus keta, populations released from Hokkaido, Japan. N. Pac. Anadr. Fish Comm. Bull. No. 1: 90–102.
Kondzela, C.M., C.M. Guthrie, S.L. Hawkins, C.D. Russell, J.H. Helle & A.J. Gharrett. 1994. Genetic relationships among chum salmon populations in southeast Alaska and northern British Columbia. Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 51: 50–64.
Loughlin, T.R. & K. Ohtani. 1996. Dynamics of the Bering Sea. University of Alaska Sea Grant, AK-SG-99-03. Fairbanks. 825 pp.
Mahnken, C., G. Ruggerone, W. Waknize & T. Flagg. 1998. A historical perspective on salmonid production from Pacific Rim hatcheries. N. Pac. Anadr. Fish Comm. Bull. 1: 38–53.
National Research Council (NRC). 1996. The Bering Sea Ecosystem, National Academy Press, Washington, DC.
Nei, M. 1973. Analysis of gene diversity in subdivided populations. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 70: 3321–3323.
Patton, W.S., K.W. Myers & R.V. Walker. 1998. Origins of chum salmon caught incidentally in the eastern Bering Sea walleye pollock trawl fishery as estimated from scale pattern analysis. N. Am. J. Fish. Management 18: 704–712.
Phelps, S.R., L.L. Leclair, S. Young & H.L. Blankenship. 1994. Genetic diversity patterns of chum salmon in the Pacific Northwest. Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 51: 65–83.
Radchenko, V.I. 1998. Historical trends of fisheries and stock condition of Pacific salmon in Russia. N. Pac. Anadr. Fish. Comm. Bull. No. 1: 28–37.
Salo, E.O. 1991. Life history of chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta). pp. 231–309. In: C. Groot & L. Margolis (ed.) Pacific Salmon Life Histories, UBC Press, University of British Columbia, Vancouver.
Sapozhnikov, V.V. 1999. Mesoscale anticyclonic eddies at the shelf break and their impact on the formation of hydrochemical structures of the Bering Sea. pp. 251–259. In: T.R. Loughlin & K. Ohtani (ed.) Dynamics of the Bering Sea, University of Alaska Sea Grant, AK-SG-03, Fairbanks.
Seeb, L.W. & P.A. Crane. 1999a. High genetic heterogeneity in chum salmon in Western Alaska, the contact zone between northern and southern lineages. Trans. Am. Fish. Soc. 128: 58–87.
Seeb, L.W. & P.A. Crane. 1999b. Allozymes and mitochondrial DNA discriminate Asian and North American populations of chum salmon in mixed-stock fisheries along the south coast of the Alaska Peninsula. Trans. Am. Fish. Soc. 128: 88–103.
Smouse, P.E., R.S. Waples & J.A. Tworek. 1990. A genetic mixture analysis for use with incomplete source population data. Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 47: 620–634.
Sukhanova, I.R., H.J. Semina & M.V. Venttsel. 1999. Spatial distribution and temporal variability of phytoplankton in the Bering Sea. pp. 453–483. In: T.R. Loughlin & K. Ohtani (ed.) Dynamics of the Bering Sea, University of Alaska Sea Grant, AK-SG-99-03, Fairbanks.
Urawa, S., M. Kawana, G. Anma, Y. Kamei, T. Shoji, M. Fukuwaka, K.M. Munk, K.W. Myers & E.V. Farley Jr. 2000. Geographic origin of high-seas chum salmon determined by genetic and thermal otolith markers. N. Pac. Anadr. Fish Comm. Bull. 2: 283–290.
Wilmot, R.L., R.J. Everett, W.J. Spearman, R. Baccus, N.V. Varnavskaya & S.V. Putivkin. 1994. Genetic stock structure of Western Alaska chum salmon and a comparison with Russian Far East stocks. Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 51: 84–94.
Wilmot, R.L., C.M. Kondzela, C.M. Guthrie & M. Masuda. 1998. Genetic stock identification of chum salmon harvested incidentally in the 1994 and 1995 Bering Sea trawl fishery. N. Pac. Anadr. Fish Comm. Bull. No. 1: 285–299.
Winans, G.A., P.B. Aebersold, Y. Ishida & S. Urawa. 1998. Genetic stock identification of chum salmon in highseas test fisheries in the Western North Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea. N. Pac. Anadr. Fish Comm. Bull. No. 1: 220–226.
Winans, G.A., P.B. Aebersold, S. Urawa & N.V. Varnavskaya. 1994. Determining continent of origin of chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta) using genetic stock identification techniques: Status of allozyme baseline in Asia. Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 51: 95–113.
Wood, C.C., S. McKinnell, T.J. Mulligan & D.A. Fournier. 1987. Stock identification with the maximum-likelihood mixture model: Sensitivity analysis and application to complex problems. Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 44: 866–881.
Wooster, W. 1992. King crab dethroned. pp. 15–30. In: M.H. Glanz (ed.) Climate Variability, Climate Change, and Fisheries, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Seeb, L.W., Crane, P.A., Kondzela, C.M. et al. Migration of Pacific Rim Chum Salmon on the High Seas: Insights from Genetic Data. Environmental Biology of Fishes 69, 21–36 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:EBFI.0000022900.82523.63
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:EBFI.0000022900.82523.63