Eggs of pink salmon Oncorhynchus gorbuscha as additional nontraditional food of juvenile atlantic salmon Salmo salar in rivers of the Kola Peninsula

Abstract

Pink salmon was intentionally introduced into the rivers of the Kola Peninsula in the past century. It regularly goes to the rivers to spawn, which are always used by Atlantic salmon, and this leads to a certain competition between the species. It is reported in published work that smolts of Atlantic salmon feed on juveniles of pink salmon, but there is no information on the consumption of pink salmon eggs by young salmon. In the salmon rivers of the Far East, the consumption of eggs of one salmon species by another Far Eastern salmon, for example, chum or coho salmon, is registered. The analysis of feeding of young salmon from the Indera and Pulonga rivers (Kola Peninsula) shows that juvenile Atlantic salmon intensely consume eggs of pink salmon, which increases significantly the index of stomach fullness.