04-07-2013, 01:32 AM
We know because the fish that spawn in different areas tend to stay apart in the ocean in different water temps. The disease the Alaskan Salmon are suffering though seems to be local to only their temperate range but biologists, as far as I know, haven't figured out the basis for the ICK disease effecting the Alaskan fish.
Our local fish numbers for returns are based on the jack returns from the previous year. While that can be a fairly accurate guestimate it can also grossly miss the number of retuning fish due to cyclical ocean temperatures changing the amount of food available to the salmon in the ocean biomass. Our fish are mostly smolt out, ocean food available and fish in past the states that take most of our hatchery raised fish as their own.
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Our local fish numbers for returns are based on the jack returns from the previous year. While that can be a fairly accurate guestimate it can also grossly miss the number of retuning fish due to cyclical ocean temperatures changing the amount of food available to the salmon in the ocean biomass. Our fish are mostly smolt out, ocean food available and fish in past the states that take most of our hatchery raised fish as their own.
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