being fairly new here i don't know if this has ever been a discusion.so do they follow the same routes as salmon do?up to alaska or do they take some other path?I know this is mabe one of those dumb questions but i myself really don't know.any help out there?

It is actually not a dumb question at all as it is a question that many biologists would love to pin down a definite answer.

Steelhead are the wanderers of our anadramous fishes as they have been found all over the northern half of the Pacific Ocean with very little rhyme or reason.

A year or so back, I saw some excellent data reffering to where steelhead were found in the Pacific Ocean. I wish I could remember the author and the title of that study as it was the best data I have seen in regards to this commonly asked but rarely answered question.

I believe that of all of the anadromous salmonids, the steelhead's oceanic migratory patterns are the least known. I think some studies have been done, but I'm not sure of their conclusions. Maybe Salmo G will see this thread, and can possibly provide you with an answer. I myself am curious as well.

I haven't seen the study that Ryan is referring to, but I do know that we don't know much.

I cnr'd a fish on the Nisqually back in the early '80's that had a blue spaghetti tag on it. A few calls later and I was told, tentatively, that the tag came from a Japanese research vessel that netted, tagged, and released the steelhead just north of Japan within Japanese waters.

That's a pretty good swim.

Fish on...

Todd.

I've got that book, also. Just can't lay my hands on it, and forget the author's name. The title is something like Pacific migrations of steelhead (and salmon?). I just hate this old timer's disease. So I quick looked again at Trey Comb's Steelhead Trout (1971). It's got an old and short description of what was known about steelhead ocean migrations at that time. Funny, doesn't seem we know a lot more now.

They do migrate up the coast sort of like salmon, but don't hug the shore or continental shelf like coho and chinook. Neither do they school up like salmon. High seas research and drift net ships (remember them?) pick up the odd steelhead mixed with various assortments of sockeye and chum and very occasionally pink salmon. They migrate far to the west, many crossing the international date line. It isn't unusual for U.S. marked steelhead to be collected by Japanese research vessels. There southern ocean distribution depends on time of year and surface sea temperature. It looks like the 50 degree isotherm sets their southern limit as it swings north and south from summer to winter.

The upshot is that they exhibit greater wanderlust than salmon, and seem to often be solo travelers.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.

I saw a poster last fall at a fish hatchery just outside of Tillamook, OR that showed projected fish migrations for Chinook, Coho, and Steelhead. There were three concentric circle each a little wider than the other. They indicated that the Chinook make the smallest circle out into the Pacific, Coho the second largest, and Steelhead actually going the furthest north and the furthest west, hugging the coasts of Russia and Korea before heading back to North America. I've tried to get a copy of this poster. It was issued by the Tillamook Bay National Estuary Project through Whiskey Creek Hatchery. HT

Wasn't there a story a while back about a steelhead tagged in Russia which was caught in one of the Mt. Rainier area rivers. That fish needed a GPS very bad.

Trey Combs' "The Steelhead Trout" has information about migrations, as well as some pictures of those migrations. It is old data, but gives an idea of the vast distances the fish cover.
Matt

I thought this was a great topic! I remember seeing the route arrows extending a little north then arcing west toward Japan and back up to the home river. I did some surfing and here is a site that is both known subject material by many here and some stuff they may find interesting.

www.atmos.washington.edu/~mantua/REPORTS/OSPREY/ospreyFINAL.doc

A little excerpt....
Steelhead often migrate directly into high-seas waters during their first summer in the ocean. One fish released from a hatchery in Idaho swam to the center of the Gulf of Alaska, a distance of about 890 nautical miles offshore, in only two months. Another from Oregon's Alsea River hatchery was caught south of Kodiak five months later, a distance of at least 1200 miles. These fish must be cruising at speeds of 10 miles per day or more. While most other species of Pacific salmon initially migrate through along the coast of British Columbia and Alaska, juvenile steelhead appear to head directly to the open ocean.
Take this all for what you want!!!!

[ 01-26-2002: Message edited by: headshaker ]

Salmo G, I find this topic amazing!!

Why is it that we have listed so many steelhead stocks as "endangered species" and apparently NMFS and all the other "experts" don't even know or understand where our listed steelhead migrate to? If they don't know that how can they determine what is making a specie so endangered?

I got it, I got it, first we list them as endangered species, and then we try to find out why they aren't coming back home. Maybe if we really understood what and where they go, and understand their complete life cycle, we just might understand why they have failed to return in sufficient numbers to be self- sustaining.

Maybe steelhead will never be able to recover, especially if we don't even understand where they go when they leave our rivers. It almost unbelievable, that NMPS would list a species first and then try to figure out its life cycle later on.


Well, I guess it's not that really that unbelievable is it Salmo?

Cowlitzfisherman

Is the taste of the bait worth the sting of the hook????

CFM,

No, I don't find it so odd. Understanding the steelhead's life cycle is a different thing than knowing where the steelhead is during every part of that life cycle. Knowing where the steelhead is in the ocean is useful, but not critical to understanding its life cycle. We have empirical evidence that steelhead return to their natal streams following their ocean migration. If NMFS has additional data demonstrating a population's decline over time, then they have sufficient information to list stocks as threatened or endangered under the ESA. The information regarding factors for the decline, like overharvest, dams, and habitat degradation, is useful, but not mandatory for a listing.

Knowing exactly where steelhead spend their ocean migration is useful in understanding the effects of additional factors like high seas driftnetting and the effect of ocean temperatures on upwelling, phyto and zooplankton production that influence marine survival rates. Although interesting and potentially useful, such information is by no means necessary for ESA listings. Considering that steelhead spread out in the ocean in apparently low densities and that data on their whereabouts is generally obtains coincidentally with other ocean and high seas investigations, I'm surprised that scientists have discovered as much as they have about the steelhead's wanderings in the sea.

BTW, that book on ocean migrations I mentioned in the post above is by Pearcy (sp).

Sincerely,

Salmo g.

[ 01-26-2002: Message edited by: Salmo g. ]

headshaker,
Thanks for the info.