Distribution and feeding of juvenile Pacific salmon in freshwater tidal creeks of the lower Fraser River, British Columbia

Abstract

Abstract This study examined juvenile salmonid use of a freshwater tidal creek system draining a wetland on the floodplain of the lower Fraser River, British Columbia, Canada. Chum, Oncorhynchus keta (Walbaum), chinook, O. tshawytscha (Walbaum), and sockeye, O. nerka (Walbaum), salmon fry were abundant in the tidal creeks in spring. The fry were found in non‐natal habitat up to 1.5 km from the main channel of the river. The salmon fry ate dipteran adults, larvae and pupae, cyclopoid and harpacticoid copepods, and Collembola. Mysids Neomysis mercedis Holmes (Walbaum), and amphipods, Crangonyx richmondensis occidentalis (Hubricht and Harrison), were also consumed. The upper reaches of an undisturbed creek were the winter rearing habitat for presmolt coho salmon, O. kisutch (Walbaum), where this species ate dipteran pupae and larvae as well as a freshwater isopod, Asellus communis Say (Walbaum).