Evidence for Size-Selective Mortality of Juvenile Sockeye Salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) in Babine Lake, British Columbia

Otolith – body length relations and back-calculation procedures were used to test the hypothesis that mortality of juvenile sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) in Babine Lake, British Columbia, is size selective. Samples of the 1978 brood of sockeye were collected as fry from spawning tributaries as juveniles in the main basin, and as smolts at the outlet. Total otolith length was chosen as the most useful otolith dimension for back-calculation of fork length at emergence. Sockeye from the various tributaries show different fork length – otolith length relationships necessitating a weighting procedure for comparisons involving samples of mixed stocks from the lake. Instantaneous daily growth rate and In fork length during the early lake-rearing period were significantly correlated. Smaller juveniles grew more slowly than larger individuals in mid-july, and a hierarchy of sizes was maintained. The distributions of total otolith length at emergence for fry, surviving juveniles, and smolts indicate selective mortality of fish with smaller otoliths, hence of small size at emergence. Survivals from the lower and upper halves of the initial total otolith length distribution were 8.9 and 63.6%, respectively. Comparable estimates for back-calculated fork lengths at emergence were 27.2 and 43.4%. Size-selective mortality is most intense in the late summer and early autumn, and may be associated with predation and parasitism.