Individual downstream swimming speed during the natural smolting period among young of Baltic salmon (Salmo salar)

Abstract

The individual downstream swimming behaviour of two-summer-old salmon from the Ume River hatchery stock was monitored throughout the natural smolting period in May–June. The experiment was performed in an artificial-stream tank (diameter 11 m) equipped with a passive integrated transponder (PIT) tag monitoring system. The swimming speed of individual fish in relation to water velocity and the porportion of time during which an individual fish showed active versus passive displacement were investigated using a total of 224 sexually immature fish and previously mature males, individually PIT tagged. At peak migration fish swam downstream at an average speed of about double the water velocity, indicating active downstream migration. No differences in downstream swimming speed between migratory and nonmigratory fish were observed. However, migratory and nonmigratory fish used considerably different proportions of the total time swimming faster than the water current, 10% for migratory fish but only 0.1% for nonmigratory fish. Migratory smolts covered about 25% of their total downstream displacement by means of active downstream swimming: 3.3 km out of 13.5 km in 24 h. Thus, the study clearly shows that active downstream swimming is an important part of the migratory repertoire of salmon smolts.