Swimming performance of various freshwater Newfoundland salmonids relative to habitat selection and fishway design

Swimming ability of wild brook trout Salvelinus fontinalis, brown trout Salmo trutta, anadromous Atlantic salmon Salmo salar, and landlocked Atlantic salmon was examined using fixed and increasing velocity tests. Although brook trout and salmon parr were collected from the same site, brook trout were found generally in slow‐moving pools whereas salmon were more common in faster riffle areas. Salmon parr could hold station indefinitely in currents in which brook trout could only maintain themselves briefly. Therefore, selection of fast‐water areas by salmon parr may impose a velocity barrier to sympatric juvenile brook trout, reducing competition between the species. Performance comparisons also indicate that anadromous Atlantic salmon possess slightly greater sustained ability than landlocked salmon, possibly due to altered selective pressure associated with their different life histories. Finally, fishways and culverts in Newfoundland can now be designed using models generated from performance data collected from native salmonid species.