In aquarium experiments using coho salmon as a model species, prior residents dominated intruders of the same size but intruders with a 6% length advantage were equally matched against prior residents. Prior winning experience (distinct from individual recognition) also strongly influenced competitive success and overcame a prior residence effect. Coho salmon reared in a hatchery dominated size...

—We report on a 3-year study of the infestation rates of the sea louse, Lepeophtheirus salmonis, on wild juvenile pink salmon Oncorhynchus gorbuscha and chum salmon O. keta in the Broughton Archipelago, British Columbia. In 2002, the British Columbia Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food ordered farm fallowing (i.e., the removal of farmed Atlantic salmon Salmo salar from net-cages) along...

In British Columbia, Canada (BC), aquaculture of finfish in ocean netpens has the potential for pathogen transmission between wild and farmed species due to the sharing of an aquatic environment. Viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus (VHSV) is enzootic in BC and causes serious disease in wild Pacific herring, Clupea pallasii, which often enter and remain in Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar, netpens. I...

The Southeast Alaska Coastal Monitoring (SECM) project has been sampling juvenile salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) and associated environmental parameters in northern Southeast Alaska (SEAK) annually since 1997 to better understand effects of environmental change on salmon production. A pragmatic application of the annual sampling effort is to forecast the abundance of adult salmon returns in subsequ...

There is an increasing realization of the diverse mechanisms by which parasites and pathogens influence the dynamics of host populations and communities. In multi-host systems, parasites may mediate food web dynamics with unexpected outcomes for host populations. Models have been used to explore the potential consequences of interactions between hosts, parasites and predators, but connections b...

Knowledge of the health impact of consuming heat-treated versus raw fish fillet is limited. To investigate effects of baked or raw salmon fillet intake on lipids and n-3 PUFAs in serum and tissues, obese Zucker fa/fa rats were fed diets containing 25% of protein from baked or raw salmon fillet and 75% of protein from casein, or casein as the sole protein source (control group) for four weeks. S...

Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) navigate towards spawning grounds using olfactory cues they imprinted on as juveniles. The timing at which imprinting occurs has been studied extensively, and there is strong evidence that salmon imprint on their natal water during the parr-smolt transformation (PST). Researchers have noted, however, that the life histories of some species of Pacific salmon co...

We reported recently that several organic contaminants occurred at elevated concentrations in farmed Atlantic salmon compared with concentrations of the same contaminants in wild Pacific salmon [Hites et al. Science 303: 226-229 (2004)]. We also found that polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), toxaphene, dieldrin, dioxins, and polybrominated diphenyl ethers occurred at higher concentrations in Euro...

Infectious salmon anaemia (ISA) is a major disease of Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar, caused by an orthomyxovirus (ISAV). Increases in global aquaculture and the international movement of fish made it important to determine if Pacific salmon are at risk. Steelhead trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss, and chum, O. keta, Chinook, O. tshawytscha, coho, O. kisutch, and Atlantic salmon were injected intraperit...

—Sightings and captures of Atlantic salmon Salmo salar that have escaped from aquaculture facilities have become common in coastal British Columbia, Canada. A lack of empirical data has prevented the forecast of what effects may result from the presence of this species in the Pacific Northwest. A first step towards this objective is to evaluate the spawning potential of escaped Atlantic salmon....