12-01-2006, 08:07 AM
[ol][li]When was Atlantic Salmon introduced to the great lakes?[/li] [li]What is the avarage lenth of a great lakes atlantic salmon?[/li] [li]what is the average weight of a Great lake atlantic salmon?[/li] [li]What Great lake dose the atlantic salmon found?[/li] [li]What age dose the Great lake atlantic salmon return to spawn?[/li] [li]How long dose a Great lake atlantic salmon live?[/li] [li]What age dose a Great lake atlantic salmon leave the river and move in to the lake?[/li] [li]what it the habitat of the Great lake atlantic salmon?[/li] [li]What dose the atlantic salmon eat?[/li] [li]what lures do Great lake atlantic salmon hit on?[/li] [li]do any of the great lake samon spawn more than once?[/li][/ol]
Answers
[ul] [li][size 4]Length: 26 inches [/size] [li][size 4]Weight: 4 pounds [/size] [li][size 4]Coloring: brown, green or blue on top; silvery on sides, and silvery white below [/size] [li][size 4]Common Names: Kennebec salmon, sebago, sebago salmon, grilse, kelt[/size] [li][size 4]Found in Lakes: Stocked in Ontario[/size] [/li][/ul]
The Atlantic salmon has been honored throughout history. The Gauls and Romans prized its many qualities, and Britain's Magna Carta even granted it rights of protection.
Despite its venerable past, this valuable sport and commercial fish has not readily adapted to the upper Great Lakes, though they were once native to Lake Ontario. After more than 100 years of trying, Canada and the U.S. have yet to establish these ocean-going salmon in the fresh waters of any of the Great Lakes.
In recent years, Michigan has planted a new freshwater strain of Atlantic salmon in Lakes Michigan and Huron. These "Gullspang" Atlantic salmon come from the freshwater lakes of Sweden, where they have been landlocked since the Ice Ages. Michigan and Wisconsin have at times experimented with a strain of Atlantic salmon that spawns in the rivers of Quebec province, and Minnesota continues to stock this species.
From these stocking programs, Lake Superior and the other Great Lakes now have small populations of Atlantic salmon. However, the success in reintroducing the fish has not been noteworthy, and Michigan is the only state that continues to stock it.
Though most Atlantic salmon spawn in fresh water and then spend most of their life in the ocean, some also lived their entire lives in Lake Ontario up until the 1900s. For over 100 years, Canada and the United States tried to establish self-sustaining populations of Atlantic salmon in the upper Great Lakes, but with only minimal success.
After the parasitic sea lamprey was brought under control, Michigan planted a new freshwater strain of Atlantic salmon in Lakes Michigan and Superior. These "Gullspang" Atlantic salmon came from Sweden, where they have been landlocked since the Ice Ages. For a few years in the 1970s, Michigan and Wisconsin also planted a strain of oceangoing Atlantic salmon in Lake Superior from stocks that spawned in the rivers of the province of Quebec. In the 1980s, Minnesota alone continued to plant Atlantic salmon in the headwater Great Lake, while Michigan today plants these fish only in Lake Michigan.
Though Atlantic salmon may spawn two or three times during their lives, self-propagating stocks have not yet developed. But fisheries scientists still hope that some experimental strain of Atlantic salmon will be found that has the genetic makeup to survive and reproduce in the Great Lakes.
Identifying characteristics: (Non-Native Fish)
Two dorsal fins including one adipose fin, narrow pointed
with four to six small teeth, dark pectoral fins, forked tail, nine rays in anal fin.
Atlantic salmon are known throughout the world to be an exciting sport fish. This native of the North Atlantic Ocean was introduced to the Great Lakes in 1972 when Michigan planted some 20,000 young Atlantic salmon in the Boyne and AuSable Rivers. Two strains have been planted to date, including a strain from Sweden that has been landlocked for thousands of years.
Lake-run adults enter their parent streams to spawn, and each river or stream has a characteristic time when this happens. The female chooses a gravel-bottomed riffle above or below a pool, and there she digs a nest, or redd. As she lays her eggs in this depression the male simultaneously releases sperm. Then the female pushes gravel back over the eggs. When spawning is finished the adults may rest in the river for a time and then return to the lake, or the male may remain in the river all winter. Some Atlantic salmon live to spawn more than once.
Eggs hatch the following spring, usually in April, but the newly hatched young don’t emerge from their gravel nest until May or June. At that stage of their development, they stay in the stream’s fast water, eating and growing for two or three years until they are about six inches long. Then they move downriver to the lake, where they grow rapidly, often to a weight of three to six pounds in one year. Some return to their spawning grounds after this first year: others wait an extra year, growing to a weight of 6-15 pounds. The average adult lake-run Atlantic salmon weighs 8-10 pounds.
In the spring, Atlantics prefer the upper, warmer layers of the lake near shore, but in summer they retreat to deeper, cooler water. Then as fall approaches they again come shoreward as they head toward their spawning stream and the cycle repeats.
Salmon in the lake eat crustaceans, but especially seek out smelt, alewives, and any other available fish meal. While on their spawning run they do not feed, but will often strike aggressively at artificial flies. Young Atlantic salmon are prime food for eels, northern pike, other trout, and birds such as mergansers and kingfishers.
Atlantic salmon in the Great Lakes are caught using the trolling methods for chinook and coho fishing.
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Answers
[ul] [li][size 4]Length: 26 inches [/size] [li][size 4]Weight: 4 pounds [/size] [li][size 4]Coloring: brown, green or blue on top; silvery on sides, and silvery white below [/size] [li][size 4]Common Names: Kennebec salmon, sebago, sebago salmon, grilse, kelt[/size] [li][size 4]Found in Lakes: Stocked in Ontario[/size] [/li][/ul]
The Atlantic salmon has been honored throughout history. The Gauls and Romans prized its many qualities, and Britain's Magna Carta even granted it rights of protection.
Despite its venerable past, this valuable sport and commercial fish has not readily adapted to the upper Great Lakes, though they were once native to Lake Ontario. After more than 100 years of trying, Canada and the U.S. have yet to establish these ocean-going salmon in the fresh waters of any of the Great Lakes.
In recent years, Michigan has planted a new freshwater strain of Atlantic salmon in Lakes Michigan and Huron. These "Gullspang" Atlantic salmon come from the freshwater lakes of Sweden, where they have been landlocked since the Ice Ages. Michigan and Wisconsin have at times experimented with a strain of Atlantic salmon that spawns in the rivers of Quebec province, and Minnesota continues to stock this species.
From these stocking programs, Lake Superior and the other Great Lakes now have small populations of Atlantic salmon. However, the success in reintroducing the fish has not been noteworthy, and Michigan is the only state that continues to stock it.
Though most Atlantic salmon spawn in fresh water and then spend most of their life in the ocean, some also lived their entire lives in Lake Ontario up until the 1900s. For over 100 years, Canada and the United States tried to establish self-sustaining populations of Atlantic salmon in the upper Great Lakes, but with only minimal success.
After the parasitic sea lamprey was brought under control, Michigan planted a new freshwater strain of Atlantic salmon in Lakes Michigan and Superior. These "Gullspang" Atlantic salmon came from Sweden, where they have been landlocked since the Ice Ages. For a few years in the 1970s, Michigan and Wisconsin also planted a strain of oceangoing Atlantic salmon in Lake Superior from stocks that spawned in the rivers of the province of Quebec. In the 1980s, Minnesota alone continued to plant Atlantic salmon in the headwater Great Lake, while Michigan today plants these fish only in Lake Michigan.
Though Atlantic salmon may spawn two or three times during their lives, self-propagating stocks have not yet developed. But fisheries scientists still hope that some experimental strain of Atlantic salmon will be found that has the genetic makeup to survive and reproduce in the Great Lakes.
Identifying characteristics: (Non-Native Fish)
Two dorsal fins including one adipose fin, narrow pointed
with four to six small teeth, dark pectoral fins, forked tail, nine rays in anal fin. Atlantic salmon are known throughout the world to be an exciting sport fish. This native of the North Atlantic Ocean was introduced to the Great Lakes in 1972 when Michigan planted some 20,000 young Atlantic salmon in the Boyne and AuSable Rivers. Two strains have been planted to date, including a strain from Sweden that has been landlocked for thousands of years.
Lake-run adults enter their parent streams to spawn, and each river or stream has a characteristic time when this happens. The female chooses a gravel-bottomed riffle above or below a pool, and there she digs a nest, or redd. As she lays her eggs in this depression the male simultaneously releases sperm. Then the female pushes gravel back over the eggs. When spawning is finished the adults may rest in the river for a time and then return to the lake, or the male may remain in the river all winter. Some Atlantic salmon live to spawn more than once.
Eggs hatch the following spring, usually in April, but the newly hatched young don’t emerge from their gravel nest until May or June. At that stage of their development, they stay in the stream’s fast water, eating and growing for two or three years until they are about six inches long. Then they move downriver to the lake, where they grow rapidly, often to a weight of three to six pounds in one year. Some return to their spawning grounds after this first year: others wait an extra year, growing to a weight of 6-15 pounds. The average adult lake-run Atlantic salmon weighs 8-10 pounds.
In the spring, Atlantics prefer the upper, warmer layers of the lake near shore, but in summer they retreat to deeper, cooler water. Then as fall approaches they again come shoreward as they head toward their spawning stream and the cycle repeats.
Salmon in the lake eat crustaceans, but especially seek out smelt, alewives, and any other available fish meal. While on their spawning run they do not feed, but will often strike aggressively at artificial flies. Young Atlantic salmon are prime food for eels, northern pike, other trout, and birds such as mergansers and kingfishers.
Atlantic salmon in the Great Lakes are caught using the trolling methods for chinook and coho fishing.
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