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In a another study, scientists are learning about salmon habits

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 15, 2008 at 7:25 am

From the Union Democrat:

California Department of Fish and Game researcher Kevin Saeteurn hacks off the forehead of a salmon carcass, like a butcher chopping chicken, along the banks of the Stanislaus River near Knights Ferry Wednesday morning. It’s a coarse scene, but is actually a fairly precise exercise done in the name of science, not dinner.

Saeteurn is attempting to study the fish’s otolith — a calcified structure found in the salmon’s inner-ear. The otolith grows in different layers, incorporating water chemistry within each layer, said Tim Heyne, senior environmental scientist with the DFG. Because the different bodies of water — the Stanislaus River, Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, San Francisco Bay, and Pacific Ocean — have different water chemistry, it can be determined when the fish traveled into each waterway. “It’s like tree rings,” said Crystal Sinclair, a fisheries biologist with the DFG.

“We’re trying to figure out how long the fish stayed in the river,” Sinclair explained. “How high and low flows affect them. And how many are returning.”

Read more of this story from the Union Democrat by clicking here.

November 15, 2008 · Filed Under Salmon

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