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THE ECTOLOGY OF MARGAREE SALMON
Author(s) -
Huntsman A. G.
Publication year - 1965
Publication title -
limnology and oceanography
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.7
H-Index - 197
eISSN - 1939-5590
pISSN - 0024-3590
DOI - 10.4319/lo.1965.10.suppl2.r137
Subject(s) - outflow , fishery , fishing , current (fluid) , estuary , environmental science , subsidence , river mouth , fish <actinopterygii> , hydrology (agriculture) , oceanography , geology , biology , sediment , geomorphology , geotechnical engineering , structural basin
Ectology deals with the role of the environment in determining what organisms there will be. In discovering how salmon respond to what they face (their biapocrisis), the outstanding variables considered are light, temperature, and current; traditional ideas of salmon behavior have been ignored. With such knowledge, it is shown how the local and temporal conditions determine what Margaree River salmon are found where and when. Their large number is attributed to the availability and suitability of the Northeast Margaret River system on the border of high tableland. When smolts, the young are carried downstream to settle in more or less deep water along the course of the estuarial outflow. After a variable number of years, they cease feeding and wander to and fro, to be caught in nets or to become concentrated near the estuary mouth where river influence is greatest, but lack of steady estuarial outflow greatly delays their entrance. Salmon ascend the Northeast Margaree River during subsidence of freshets and offer good angling. The large Lake Ainslie reduces freshet action in the Southwest Margaree so that salmon fail to ascend it until spawning time.