I have thought for a few years it would be a really cool experiment to net a bunch of Salmon out in the Strait of Juan De Fuca, attach small micor radio transmitters to each fish, then release the whole school of fish and track their migratory routes through the sound on their way to their river of origination. This could be accomplished by setting up an array of receiver bouy's at key points throughout the sound.

Imagine owning a PS map that had colored lines which represented the routes that that majority of salmon take to each river system, maybe even by species.

Probably would yield some great information for both Conservationalists and Anglers!

I have thought the same thing. When you get the info let me know and we can't wait in ambush.....

ya that would be reel cool to have a map like that so when will get started on this project? you might even make alot of money off that.

I think I will need a sponsor or two, I am a typically tapped out boat owner!

Its already been (being?) done:

http://www.nwifc.org/newsletter/28_3/13.asp

Salmon Call Home On Way To Ocean

Once they migrate out to sea, scientists don’t have much information on where salmon go and what they do. But now, researchers are getting a rare glimpse into the saltwater life of salmon.

Using innovative technology, the Squaxin Island Tribe is tracking juvenile coho throughout southern Puget Sound as they make their way out to the ocean. “We know that in general salmon leave Puget Sound and head out into the ocean and return after a few years,” said Jeff Dickison, Policy Analyst with the Squaxin Island Tribe. “We’ve never been able to track them with this level of detail.”

Using an array of acoustic receivers located south of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, the tribe tracked a group of juvenile salmon as they made their way out to the ocean. “This is one of the first times anyone will get a near real time look at individual salmon in the saltwater,” said Dickison. The pilot group of 48 will be followed up by nearly 200 coho this spring. “Last year we were making sure the technology was going to work for us. The real science starts in 2003.”

A weak hatchery coho run in 1999 convinced the Squaxin Island Tribe that they had to find out what happened to the juvenile salmon once they were released from the tribe’s netpen facility in Peale Passage. Although almost all other hatchery coho stocks that year in the Puget Sound came back at normal levels, south Sound hatchery coho returns were poor and no one knew why. “It wasn’t freshwater mortalities; these salmon are kept in saltwater netpens until they’re ready to be released,” said Dickison. “It was something that had to happen out in the sound or out in the ocean.”

When a tagged smolt passes between a pair of receivers, its individual frequency is picked up and can be tracked for several hundred yards. “If these salmon stay south of the Tacoma Narrows for any length of time, we are going to be able to gather a lot of detailed information,” said Dickison.

Compared to earlier techniques of tracking salmon, such as coded wire tags inserted in the snouts of juvenile salmon, acoustic tagging is timelier and provides much more information. “With coded wire tags, you basically have two pieces of information: where the salmon was released and where it died, whether in a stream after spawning or after harvest,” said Dickison. “But with acoustic tags, you can track many other aspects of salmon life in saltwater – for example, where a salmon might be feeding or how fast it travels through a particular area.”

Even though the technology is fairly new – some experiments in British Columbia have also been performed in the past few years – the south sound is a perfect place for it to get a test run, said Dickison. “There is only one place for these fish to leave the south sound, and that is through the Tacoma Narrows,” said Dickison. “It’s fairly easy for us to track a good amount of salmon.”

The acoustic tracking program, backed by Hatchery Reform funds, is expected to lead to more efficient hatchery operations, said Dickison. “Having more information on how these juvenile hatchery coho interact with the natural environment can suggest better ways to run the net pen operation.” Hatchery Reform is a systematic, science-driven effort to address how hatcheries can help recover and conserve naturally spawning salmon populations and support sustainable fisheries. – E. O'Connell

Thanks for the info Jonbull, good stuff.

I would like to see a similar study performed an a large group of adults returning to their native waters though. That is where, from and angling perspective, we could learn the most about their habits. Feeding areas, holding areas, which areas they tend to run, etc.

Another good study would be on resident Blackmouth. You could watch their feeding and traveling patterns throughout their entire lifespan.

I think that it is a great idea. Blackmouth would be harder as they tend to travel deep and not in large groups.

This was done in the 60's on the mid-columbia for steelhead and I believe salmon also. It was before my time, but I remember the "old timers" talking about the study over several years on the adult upstream migration and year after year, the mass majority of steelhead followed the same patterns. They would change which side of the Columbia they were miswimming on at the same places and they would "sniff" the same creeks (but not all creeks!). Cool stuff!!!

Sign me up, but prepare to pony up. We conducted an acoustic tagging study on bull trout (dollies) in the Snohomish River and Central Puget Sound nearshore over the past couple of years. The hardware costs are high--the acoustic tags we used cost any where from $300 to $800 a piece and the acoustic hydrophones cost about $1,000 each. For adult salmon at the beginning of their spawning runs as they enter Puget Sound you probably would have to go with the larger pricier tags as well, since you can detect them at greater depths.

For short term studies (like spawners), you could get away with stuffing them down their gullets, but for longer term studies, such as for blackmouth, you would have to surgically implant them. Thats what we did with the bull trout; post surgery survival was very very high.

Another, possibly cheaper way to track fish would be to collect creel survey data from past/present fishing seasons and map them using GIS. Don't know what kind of historical creel survey data is out there, but it may have been done from time to time over the years--enough to provide some info if its all mapped.

Like all electronic stuff, the costs are coming down with better tech and demand. Folks are tracking tuna migrations using sattelites now. Biologists are hitching rides with the charter boats and tagging fish that are released. With a fish the size of a tuna, its possible to put a large, high output tag that can be tracked via sattelite. Its my hope within the next 10-20 years or so we can track salmon stocks in the open ocean using sattelites. Then we can begin to get a handle on that elusive variable called "ocean conditions."

Reminds me of a cool book I picked up awhile back titled King- its from the prespective of this Large King and his life in the Puget Sound area and his memory of where he began and his interactions with Fisherman on his journey "home". I dont recall the Author, but I believe he was from Port Townsend-PT

I wonder if any grants could be obtained to fund this type of study?
I have been tossing the idea around in my head for a while, maybe I will start looking into it a little more. Sounds like I could leverage the knowledge gained from similar studies performed in the past.

If this is eventually done on a wider basis is there a concern that commercials might also be able to track them and bee line right to them? Or maybe that would turn out to be a good thing allowing specific targeting of fish runs?