 |
|
|
||||
| NAS - Nonindigenous Aquatic Species |
Translate this page with 
Common Name: Atlantic salmon
Taxonomy: available through 
Identification: Scott and Crossman (1973); Smith (1985); Page and Burr (1991).
Size: 140 cm.
Native Range:
Atlantic Coast drainages from northern Quebec to Housatonic River, Connecticut (possibly formerly to Delaware); inland to Lake Ontario (where now extirpated). Also eastern Atlantic drainages from the Arctic Circle to Portugal (Page and Burr 1991).
Nonindigenous Occurrences: MacCrimmon and Gots (1979) gave a review of worldwide introductions of this species, including dates of introduction and source of stock. In the United States Atlantic salmon have been introduced into many bodies waters of Alaska (Wing et al. 1992; Thomson and McKinnell 1994; Associated Press 2003; B. Heard, personal communication; Mecklenburg et al 2005; Anonymous 2004); the Lake Tahoe, Truckee, Trinity, Sacramento, San Francisco Bay, Tulare Lake, Mokelumne, Russian, and Klamath drainages in California (Smith 1896; Shebley 1917; McAffee 1966e; Dill and Cordone 1997); Twin Lakes near Leadville, Colorado (Ellis 1974; Wiltzius 1985; Beckman 1952); inland areas in Connecticut (MacCrimmon and Gots 1979; Whitworth 1996); the Snake River, lakes in the Sawtooth Mountains, Payette Reservoir, and Deadwood Lake, Idaho (Linder 1963; Simpson and Wallace 1978; Idaho Fish and Game 1990, 1996); the Mississippi River and Lake Michigan, Illinois (MacCrimmon and Gots 1979; Emery 1985; Underhill 1986; Burr 1991); Lake Michigan, Indiana (Emery 1985; Underhill 1986; Simon et al. 1992); Iowa (Harlan et al. 1987); unspecified areas in Kansas (Cross 1967; MacCrimmon and Gots 1979); nonnative areas in Maine (Kendall 1914a; Everhart 1976; Tilmant 1999); unspecified areas in Kentucky (MacCrimmon and Gots 1979); the Potomac River and inland areas of Maryland (Ferguson 1876; Bean 1892b; MacCrimmon and Gots 1979) and Massachusetts (Hartel 1992; Cardoza et al. 1993; Anonymous 1994; USFWS 2005); the Great Lakes surrounding Michigan and Isle Royale National Park and Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and Lake St. Clair (Parsons 1973; Emery 1985; Underhill 1986; Tilmant 1999; Latta, personal communication; Cudmore-Vokey and Crossman 2000); Lake Superior, and lakes in Rice, Hennepin, and Ramsey counties, Minnesota (Parsons 1973; Eddy and Underhill 1974; Phillips et al. 1982; Emery 1985; Underhill 1986); unspecified areas in Mississippi (MacCrimmon and Gots 1979); unspecified areas in Missouri (Ferguson 1876; MacCrimmon and Gots 1979); unspecified areas in Montana (MacCrimmon and Gots 1979); the Missouri River in Douglas County and Spring Creek in Cherry County, Nebraska (Morris et al. 1974); the Humboldt, Truckee, and Carson rivers and Lake Tahoe, Nevada (Smith 1896; Miller and Alcorn 1946; Deacon and Williams 1984; Vinyard 2001); 13 lakes including Squam, Newfound, Winnipesaukee, and Sunapee lakes in New Hampshire (Hoover 1936; Scarola 1973); the Passaic, Raritan, and Delaware rivers, and lakes in northern New Jersey (Nelson 1890; Bean 1892b; Fowler 1906, 1952; Stiles 1978); unspecified areas in New Mexico (MacCrimmon and Gots 1979); Lake Ontario, Lake Erie, the Hudson River, and several inland lakes in New York (Bean 1892b, 1903; Fowler 1906; Parsons 1973; Emery 1985; Smith 1985; Cudmore-Vokey and Crossman 2000); unspecified areas in North Carolina (MacCrimmon and Gots 1979); unspecified areas in North Dakota (MacCrimmon and Gots 1979; Idaho Fish and Game 1997); Lake Erie, Sandusky and Maumee rivers in Ohio (Jordan 1882; Parsons 1973; Werner 1980; Trautman 1981; Emery 1985); a few landlocked waters of the Deschutes drainage and coastal areas of Oregon (Bond 1973, 1994; Li, personal communication); the Susquehanna and upper Delaware drainages and Lake Erie, Pennsylvania (Bean 1892b; Ford et al. 1892; Denoncourt et al. 1975a; Hendricks et al. 1979; MacCrimmon and Gots 1979; Cooper 1983; Emery 1985); unspecified areas in Rhode Island (MacCrimmon and Gots 1979); unspecified areas in South Carolina (MacCrimmon and Gots 1979); unspecified areas in Tennessee (MacCrimmon and Gots 1979); unspecified areas in Texas (MacCrimmon and Gots 1979); unspecified areas in Utah (Sigler and Miller 1963; Sigler and Sigler 1996); unspecified areas in Vermont (MacCrimmon and Gots 1979); the Potomac River, Virginia (Bean 1892b; MacCrimmon and Gots 1979; Jenkins and Burkhead 1994); Puget Sound,the Chehalis River, and coastal waters off Washington (Wing et al. 1992; Thomson and McKinnell 1994; Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife 2004); unspecified areas in West Virginia (MacCrimmon and Gots 1979); Lake Superior and Michigan, Wisconsin (Parsons 1973; Eddy and Underhill 1974; MacCrimmon and Gots 1979; Becker 1983; Emery 1985; Underhill 1986); and unspecified areas in Wyoming (Baxter and Simon 1970; MacCrimmon and Gots 1979).
Means of Introduction: Attempts were made to restore declining salmon populations in the species' native range. Soon this led to introductions outside its range for sportfishing. In Connecticut, only anadromous salmon were historically recorded. In the late 1800s, both anadromous and landlocked salmon were stocked in the state (Whitworth 1996), and in Massachusetts (Cardoza et al. 1993). Landlocked salmon were first stocked in the Great Lakes in 1874 (Parsons 1973). A total of 743,000 anadromous Atlantic salmon was stocked in the Great Lakes between 1873 and 1947 (Parsons 1973). The Atlantic salmon's popularity has led to unauthorized stocking in some areas, such as the Mississippi River in Illinois, where a specimen was collected in 1978 (Burr 1991). In Alaska and Washington, introduction resulted from escape of cultured fish from aquaculture in British Columbia and Washington. Although most of the releases are a result of small "leakage", occasionally large releases occur. More than 50,000 fish were released in British Columbia in March of 1997 when someone cut the fish pens open (Vovscko 1997). In 1996, 100,000 fish escaped from pens in Cypress Island, Washington (D. Seiler, personal communication). In July 1997, approximately 300,000 fish escaped while pens were being moved in Puget Sound (Associated Press 1997). Atlantic salmon have been cultured in Puget Sound since 1985 (Dodge 1997). Culture of Atlantic salmon is illegal in Alaska (Heard, personal communication). Courtenay (1993) reports that culture pens on the west coast have been ripped apart by pinnipeds, freeing the fish.
Status: Most attempts to establish populations have failed. Atlantic salmon are common and widely dispersed in Alaska, although there is no evidence of reproduction. All captures have been from marine waters. The salmon are found west to the Kodiak peninsula (B. Heard, personal communication). Atlantic salmon have been reported in the commercial fisheries of Washington since 1988 and in Alaska since 1990 (A. J. Thomson, personal communication). Although many hundreds of thousands of Atlantic salmon have escaped from west coast aquaculture facilities there had been no evidence of reproduction (D. Seiler, personal communication). However, in 1998, evidence of reproduction was found in British Columbia (Howard 1998). A researcher in British Columbia found that after 3 weeks 14 percent of escaped farm raised Atlantic salmon had fed. Atlantic salmon were collected outside a fish farm feeding on the pellets that drifted through mesh. These fish were ripe with eggs and sperm ready to spawn (Morton 2004). Many escaped Atlantic salmon do feed well, grow, and migrate throughout the Gulf of Alaska. Some are caught in troll fisheries in Alaska attempting to feed on herring or articial squid (J. Seeb, pers. comm.).
Impact of Introduction: Infected Atlantic salmon stocked into Puget Sound were apparently responsible for introducing a new disease to the west coast, viral hemorraghic septicemia (VHS). This disease has since been found in two Puget Sound salmon hatcheries (Dentler 1993).
Remarks: Atlantic salmon have been stocked in native areas in Connecticut and Massachusetts to restore extirpated populations there (Cardoza et al. 1993; Whitworth 1996). States where "inland" locations are given, "inland" is assumed because the landlocked form was stocked. Even if the state is in the native range, the species was not native to inland areas in these states (Webster 1942; Cardoza et al. 1993).
Anonymous. 1994. More Atlantic salmon stocked in bay state ponds. Trout Unlimited Currents. Greater Boston Chapter. Feb. 4 pp.
Associated Press. 2003. Fisherman nets an Atlantic salmon. Anchorage Daily News. October 7, 2003.
Cudmore-Vokey, B. and E.J. Crossman. 2000. Checklists of the fish fauna of the Laurentian Great Lakes and their connecting channels.
Morton, A. 2004. A salmon sleuth's disturbing find. The Tyee. November 21, 2004. Available online at URL http://www.thetyee.ca
Tilmant, J.T. 1999. Management of nonindigenous aquatic fish in the U.S. National Park System. National Park Service. 50 pp.
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. 2004. Commercial production of Atlantic Salmon, escapes and recoveries in Washington State. Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Other Resources:
Atlantic Salmon - Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game - lots of good links to info
Escapes and recoveries in Washington State
Author: Pam Fuller
Revision Date: 4/21/2006 Citation for this information:
Pam Fuller. 2009. Salmo salar. USGS Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database, Gainesville, FL.
<http://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/FactSheet.asp?speciesID=926> Revision Date: 4/21/2006
| AccessibilityFOIAPrivacyPolicies and Notices | |
  |
|