On the West Greenland Sea-life Area of the Atlantic Salmon

ARCTIC ◽  
1973 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
M.J. Dunbar
2016 ◽  
Vol 73 (9) ◽  
pp. 2311-2321 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian R. Bradbury ◽  
Lorraine C. Hamilton ◽  
Timothy F. Sheehan ◽  
Gerald Chaput ◽  
Martha J. Robertson ◽  
...  

Abstract The West Greenland Atlantic Salmon (Salmo salar) fishery represents the largest remaining mixed-stock fishery for Atlantic Salmon in the Northwest Atlantic and targets multi-sea-winter (MSW) salmon from throughout North America and Europe. We evaluated stock composition of salmon harvested in the waters off West Greenland (n = 5684 individuals) using genetic mixture analysis and individual assignment to inform conservation of North American populations, many of which are failing to meet management targets. Regional contributions to this fishery were estimated using 2169 individuals sampled throughout the fishery between 2011 and 2014. Of these, 22% were identified as European in origin. Major North American contributions were detected from Labrador (∼20%), the Southern Gulf/Cape Breton (29%), and the Gaspe Peninsula (29%). Minor contributions (∼5%) were detected from Newfoundland, Ungava, and Quebec regions. Region-specific catches were extrapolated using estimates of composition and fishery catch logs and harvests ranged from 300 to 600 and 2000 to 3000 individuals for minor and major constituents, respectively. To evaluate the temporal stability of the observed fishery composition, we extended the temporal coverage through the inclusion of previously published data (1995–2006, n = 3095) and data from archived scales (1968–1998, n = 420). Examination of the complete time-series (47 years) suggests relative stability in stock proportions since the late 1980s. Genetic estimates of stock composition were significantly associated with model-based estimates of returning MSW salmon (individual years r = 0.69, and overall mean r = 0.96). This work demonstrates that the analysis of both contemporary and archived samples in a mixed-stock context can disentangle levels of regional exploitation and directly inform assessment and conservation of Atlantic Salmon in the West Greenland interceptory Atlantic Salmon fishery.


1972 ◽  
Vol 52 (1A) ◽  
pp. 172-172
Author(s):  
D. L. Bradlev ◽  
G. M. Colvin

Polar Record ◽  
1975 ◽  
Vol 17 (109) ◽  
pp. 355-358 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. J. Dunbar

It has been said that scientific truths begin as heresies and end as myths, enjoying a period of orthodox acceptance in between. It must be rare, if this is so, for a myth to be imposed upon the public as a “truth”, to be accepted immediately as such, and then to suffer excommunication as heresy. Such a case is at hand in the matter of the sea-life area of the Atlantic Salmon in Davis Strait and of the start of a new pelagic fishery.


1989 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis L. Scarnecchia ◽  
Árni Ísaksson ◽  
S. E. White

Investigations were conducted on the effects of oceanic variations (as measured by sea temperatures) and catches by the West Greenland salmon fishery on the sea age composition of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) stocks from 21 Icelandic west coast rivers. Annual ratios of grilse to two-sea-winter (2SW) salmon were strongly correlated among the 21 rivers. All eight rivers with time series extending back before the expansion of the West Greenland fishery showed lower ratios during the earlier period. Only 2 of the 21 rivers, however, had significantly declining ratios over their time series. In addition, for only one river was West Greenland catch significantly related to the ratios (P < 0.05), and for only one river did ratios increase when the expanded West Greenland fishery was active. Overall, the effects of the fishery on stock composition are evidently minimal. The mean April–May temperature when the smolts were to migrate out of rivers was significantly and positively related to subsequent ratios for five of the rivers, which, along with correlations among the ratios, indicated that more rapid growth of smolts in their first summer may have increased the ratios of grilse to 2SW salmon on several rivers.


2009 ◽  
Vol 67 (3) ◽  
pp. 537-550 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy F. Sheehan ◽  
Christopher M. Legault ◽  
Timothy L. King ◽  
Adrian P. Spidle

Abstract Sheehan, T. F., Legault, C. M., King, T. L., and Spidle, A. P. 2010. Probabilistic-based genetic assignment model: assignments to subcontinent of origin of the West Greenland Atlantic salmon harvest. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 67: 537–550. A multistock Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) fishery operates off the coast of West Greenland and harvests fish of North American and European origin. Annual landings peaked in 1971 at 2700 t, but declined to 22 t in 2003. Biological data are collected to characterize the catch and its stock composition. Multilocus genotypes, generated via microsatellite DNA analysis, are used to derive statistics on continent of origin and less accurate finer-scale assignments. We developed a probabilistic-based genetic assignment (PGA) model to estimate the contribution of salmon from individual North American rivers in the 2000–2003 West Greenland catch. Uncertainty associated with finer-scale assignments is addressed by incorporating estimated misclassification rates and by reporting results as distributions generated via Monte Carlo resampling. US-origin fish represented ∼1% (by number) of the salmon harvested at West Greenland during the years 2000–2003. The resulting loss of spawners to this stock complex was approximately half the estimated adult returns in 2001, but was below 4% in the other 3 years. This is the first attempt to partition the US component of the West Greenland mixed-stock fishery to its finer parts. The approach can be used to identify the effects of fishing on individual stocks within any multistock complex where genetic samples of known origin are available.


1991 ◽  
Vol 48 (5) ◽  
pp. 884-893 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eldredge Bermingham ◽  
Stephen H. Forbes ◽  
Kevin Friedland ◽  
Carles Pla

Twenty restriction endonucleases were used to study mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) polymorphism in 11 hatchery strains of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) representing geographically separated populations in Europe and North America. The North American salmon mtDNAs studied were readily distinguished, by a minimum of seven restriction site differences, from fish of European origin. These results suggested that restriction analyses of mtDNA might provide a useful method for determining the proportions of European and North American Atlantic salmon caught in the West Greenland fishery. To test this proposition, we analyzed 328 salmon caught in the 1987 West Greenland fishery including 68 fish with coded wire or Carlin tags which provided the geographic source of the tagged salmon. We correctly identified the continent of origin for 67 of the 68 physically tagged salmon using two informative restriction endonucleases. This study provides a clear indication of the usefulness of mtDNA for discriminating between European and North American Atlantic salmon caught in the West Greenland fishery and for mixed-fishery analysis in general.


2015 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanna Legeżyńska ◽  
Kajetan Deja ◽  
Maria Włodarska-Kowalczuk

Three species of dexaminid amphipods are currently known from the Arctic, but none of them have been hitherto recorded in the west Spitsbergen fjords (Svalbard). In 2010, four individuals of dexaminidGuernea (Prinassus) nordenskioldiwere sampled for the first time in the mouth of Isfjorden, a large fjord system located at 78°N. The species was originally described by Hansen (1888) from West Greenland and since then it has been collected in a number of locations showing almost circumarctic distribution. This study represents the first record of the family Dexaminidae and the speciesG. (P.) nordenskioldifrom west Spitsbergen (Greenland Sea).


1990 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 307-310 ◽  
Author(s):  
C.R. Warren ◽  
N.R.J. Hulton

The retreat of the West Greenland ice sheet from its Sisimiut (Wisconsinan) glacial maximum, was punctuated by a series of Stillstands or small readvances that formed numerous moraines. These landforms have been interpreted in the past as the result of short-term, regional falls in ablation-season temperatures. However, mapping of the geomorphological evidence south of Ilulissat (Jakobshavn) suggests that retreat behaviour was not primarily governed by climate, and therefore that the former ice margins are not palaeoclimatically significant. During warm climate ice-sheet wastage, the successive quasi-stable positions adopted by the ice margin were largely governed by topography. The retreat of the inherently unstable calving glaciers was arrested only at topographically-determined locations where stability could be achieved.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document