Effect of dietary salt on migration and survival of yearling steelhead produced at Iron Gate Hatchery, Klamath River, 2009

We surgically implanted radio transmitters into 30 hatchery yearling steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss) released from Iron Gate Hatchery during the spring of 2009 to improve our understanding of the effect of dietary salt on their out-migration and survival. Steelhead yearlings were divided into two feed treatments to test the efficacy of a salt-enriched feed in promoting out-migration. Fish were fed either their regular diet (control treatment) or a salt-enriched diet (test treatment) for 38 d prior to their release. We implanted 15 fish of each treatment with radio transmitters for a total of 30 tagged individuals. Nine of the radio-tagged steelhead (four of the control treatment; five of the test treatment) completed their downstream migration to the estuary within the 60-d operational period of the tags. Tagged fish migrated from the hatchery release site to the estuary in an average of 45 d. Neither migration nor survival differed between diet treatments, but small sample size and the relatively short duration of this study limit the conclusiveness of our findings.