Fishway passage and post-passage mortality of up-river migrating sockeye salmon in the Seton River, British Columbia

Adult sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) were studied to assess the consequences of a dam and vertical-slot fishway on mortality during their spawning migration in the Seton-Anderson watershed, British Columbia, Canada. Since previous research suggests fishway passage may be difficult, our main hypothesis was that the dam and fishway have post-passage consequences that affect subsequent behaviour and survival. Eighty-seven sockeye were caught at the top of the fishway, implanted with an acoustic telemetry transmitter, non-lethally biopsied to obtain a small blood sample and released either upstream or downstream of the dam. Indices of physiological stress (i.e. plasma cortisol, glucose, lactate and ions) indicated that fish were not stressed or exhausted after capture from the fishway, and were not unduly stressed by transportation to release sites or net-pen holding. Of 59 fish released downstream of the dam, 14% did not reach the dam tailrace. Overall passage efficiency at the fishway was 80%. Mortality in two lakes upstream of the dam was greater in fish released downstream of the dam (27%) compared to fish released upstream of the dam (7%; p = 0.04) suggesting that dam passage has consequences that reduce subsequent survival. Cumulative mortality of fish released downstream of the dam (n = 55) resulted in only 49% survival to spawning areas, compared to 93% of fish released upstream of the dam (n = 28). Survival was significantly lower for females (40%) than for males (71%; p = 0.03), a finding that has implications for conservation because spawning success of sockeye salmon populations is governed primarily by females. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.