Abstract
Field assessment of precocious maturation in salmon parr using ultrasound imaging
Highlights
Long term monitoring of animal populations in the wild is of great interest for ecology and management (Clutton-Brock & Sheldon 2010)
Assessing precocious maturation in parrs from phenotypic observation can reach a high level of accuracy in trained operators
Ultrasound imaging is an objective, transferable and replicable approach to investigate precocious maturity in parrs, as it relies on key diagnostic features
Summary
Long term monitoring of animal populations in the wild is of great interest for ecology and management (Clutton-Brock & Sheldon 2010). In the North Atlantic, the widespread decline in salmon abundance was associated with a decrease in both survival and age at maturity (Chaput 2012). This global change makes it important to be able to predict population structure and abundance in the future under different climatic scenarios. Stock assessments form the basis for catch advice for salmon fisheries, but they mask regional differences and annual river-specific stock assessments are only available for some 25% of the rivers (Chaput 2012) This is partly because field records are imperfect observation of the true state of an individual (Genovart et al 2012). Field studies are challenged by the need to reduce uncertainty in individual-level data
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