Trout and Salmon Culture

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Trout and Salmon Culture
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Salmonid Life Cycle
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Commonly Cultured Trout

• Rainbow Trout Oncorhynchus mykiss
• Brown Trout Salmo trutta
• Brook Trout Salvelinus fontinalis

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Trout Culture
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Stages of Culture - Trout

• Broodstock
• Spawning
• Egg incubation
• Fry culture
• Fingerling production
• Growout

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Broodstock

• Females are 2 to 3 years old
• Can be used for more than one year but may have
  decreased egg quality and quantity
• Males are 2 to 3 years old
• Can be used several times in one spawning season
  but not for more than one year

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Dry Spawning
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Eggs

• Green eggs eggs from 48 hours post-spawn to
  eyed stage
• Can be shipped in plastic eggs at 38F
• Ship eggs wrapped in damp cheese cloth
• Chill with ice and let water drip onto eggs

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Egg Incubation
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Trout Sac Fry Alevins
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Size Grading
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Trout Fingerling Production
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Trout Growout

• Raceways
• Ponds
• Cages

Tri-Omega Trout Farm, Pisgah National Forest in
Transylvania, NC
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Trout Raceways in NC
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Trout Raceways In Idaho
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Trout Pond Culture
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Trout Tank Culture
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Marketing Trout

• Fee fishing
• Live hauling
• Filet products

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Fee Fishing
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Live Hauling
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Fillet Products
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Salmon Culture
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There are six species of salmon in the Pacific
Northwest. The largest salmon, the Chinook, can
reach over 6 feet in length and weighs over 100
pounds.
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Atlantic Salmon stock enhancement - collection of
wild broodstock
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The Salmon Life Cycle
In the fall, salmon deposit eggs in the gravel of
flowing streams.
After spawning (laying eggs), the salmon die
sometimes inches from where they were hatched!
Amazing instincts!
Eggs hatch in the spring, and the alevin grow
quickly. Later, the fingerlings continue to grow
toward maturity in the streams near their
birthplace.
As they get closer to their spawning grounds,
salmon change in their appearance. Some salmon
travel over 1000 miles to lay their eggs.
Salmon can grow to be over 100 pounds as they
feast in the nutrient- rich waters of the ocean.
When full grown, the beautiful, silvery fish
begin their migration back to the waters of their
birth.
When they become strong enough to swim in rushing
currents, and quick enough to escape their
enemies, the salmon begin migrating to the sea.

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Commonly Cultured Salmon

• Atlantic Salmon Salmo salar
• Chinook Salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha
• Coho Salmon Oncorhynchus kisutch
• Pink Salmon Oncorhynchus gorbuscha

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Atlantic salmon hatchery
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Stages of Salmon Culture

• Spawning
• Egg incubation
• Fry culture
• Fingerling production
• Growout

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Salmon Egg Incubation
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Sac Fry Culture
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Alevin
Tiny alevin grow quickly after being hatched.
When they are as long as your fingernail, they
are called fry, and look like real fish! Whey
they get to be about as long as your longest
finger, they are given a new name -- smolt. As
the smolt grow, they eventually begin their
migration to the ocean.
Smolt
Ocean Bound!
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Salmon Fingerling Production
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Salmon Fingerling Production
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Salmon Growout

• Extensive
• Net Pens

Hills Island Salmon Farm, Canada
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Salmon - Extensive Culture

• Culture fingerlings in tanks
• Stock fingerlings (smolts) into native streams
• Fish will migrate to the ocean and undergo
  smoltification
• Fish will live in open ocean for approximately 3
  years
• Fish will return to stream they were planted
  (chloramine-T, Seattle)
• Can be harvested when they return and before they
  die
• Approximately 1 in 1000 return

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Salmon - Net Pen Culture
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Salmon Net Pens

• Stocking density usually between 8 14 kg/cubic
  meter, but research has shown that 75 kg/cubic
  meter may be feasible!
• Feeding by hand, or electronic (SONAR)
• Atlantic salmon represent 80 of net pen
  operations in the Pacific Northwest and Canada
• Atlantic salmon????
• Better FCR, higher survival, better dressout .
• Escapees of Atlantic salmon into Pacific Ocean
• A threat to Pacific salmon?
• Not yet! Escapees experience high mortality, poor
  reproduction, do not spawn with Pacific salmon

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Salmon Processing
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Marketing Fillets
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CATFISHES
Figure 1.2.10 Total finfish aquaculture
production by major species groups in
2000(values expressed as by weight)
Total production 23,067,973 metric tons valued
at US 31,565,104,100 in 2000

FILTER FEEDING CYPRINIDS
MARINE FISHES
EELS
MILKFISH
SALMONIDS
CATFISH
TILAPIA
PELLET FEEDING CYPRINIDS
OTHER FRESHWATER FISHES
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• Credits
• Pictures and diagrams found in this
• photo essay are courtesy of
• The Alaskan Department of Fish and Game
• The Washington Department of Fish and Game
• The Army Corps of Engineers
• The US National Marine Fisheries

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These salmon are on their way to the ocean where
they may live for 1-5 years, depending on the
species, before returning to the rivers and
streams to spawn (lay eggs). Only one salmon out
of a thousand salmon survives to return to the
river to spawn. What are some possible reasons
why such a small percentage of salmon actually
live long enough to lay eggs?
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Going home! These salmon are on their way back
to the waters of their birth. Scientists do not
know how salmon find the exact location of their
birthplace, but their sense of smell (and the
chemical signature of the waters) is an important
cue.
Along the way are many hazards some more hungry
than others!
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Replenishing Nutrients When salmon die after
spawning, they provide nutrients to plants and
animals near the rivers in which they swam. It
has been found that 20 of the nitrogen (an
important element for all living things) in
evergreen trees that grow next to salmon spawning
waters in Alaska actually was carried upstream
with salmon. These nutrients are essentially
transported from the ocean to the headwaters by
the salmon.