Relative Rates of Utilization by Commercial and Sport Fisheries of Atlantic Salmon (Salmo salar) from the Miramichi River, New Brunswick

Abstract

Studies of naturally produced Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) smolts, marked from 1950 to 1961 on tributaries of the Miramichi River by differential finclipping, indicated that commercial fisheries accounted for over 60% of their total utilization as adults. The bulk of commercial recoveries was about equally divided among Newfoundland traps, Miramichi drift nets, and Miramichi trapnets; the remainder came from various commercial catches in the Maritime Provinces and Quebec. The percentages of grilse (1 sea-year fish) in commercial catches were low, 20% for Northwest Miramichi and 17% for Southwest Miramichi fish.Anglers reported 10 and 7%, respectively, of all the recaptures of Northwest and Southwest fish. All these angling recoveries were made in freshwater sections of the Miramichi River. Grilse comprised over 70% of angling recaptures.Spawning escapement accounted for 25% of the Northwest returns, of which 60% were grilse; and 19% of the Southwest returns, of which 85% were grilse.For the total of 174,509 smolts marked on the Northwest Miramichi the minimum survival rate to fisheries and spawning escapement was 2.7%. For 78,117 Southwest smolts, the corresponding value was 2.0%. These survival rates, except for the Newfoundland commercial catches, were not adjusted for completeness of search and other factors.The average ratio of grilse to larger salmon in the adult recoveries, about 0.6:1, was much lower than in more recent smolt-tagging experiments by another worker (about 2:1) and indicated a considerable increase in the ratio for Miramichi stock between 1950 and 1968.