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A Nonlethal Measure of Smolt Status of Juvenile Steelhead Based on Body Morphology
Author(s) -
Beeman John W.,
Rondorf D. W.,
Tilson M. E.,
Venditti D. A.
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
transactions of the american fisheries society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.696
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1548-8659
pISSN - 0002-8487
DOI - 10.1577/1548-8659(1995)124<0764:anmoss>2.3.co;2
Subject(s) - juvenile , fishery , biology , discriminant function analysis , fish <actinopterygii> , rainbow trout , zoology , ecology , statistics , mathematics
A nonlethal morphometric method to assess smolt status of juvenile steelhead Oncorhynchus mykiss was validated. Fish were collected from hatcheries before release and during their seaward migration in a large river system. Fifteen anatomical landmarks were digitized from photographs of each fish, resulting in 34 morphometric characters based on a truss network. Principal component and canonical discriminant function analyses were used to assess smolt status. A single canonical variate was significantly correlated with gill Na + ,K + ‐ATPase activity, a commonly used measure of smolt status. This nonlethal method may be a useful measure of smolt status when sacrificing fish is not desirable or possible; it requires little training to perform, but it does require a larger sample size than some other methods.