• Who can identify pink and Atlantic salmon
• Feelings against pink salmon
• First catches in the history
• Distribution in the River Tana watershed
• Total catches in the rivers Tana and Neiden
• Timing of the catches
• Ecology
Development in the Pink salmon catches in the transboundary rivers of Tana and
Neiden-in Norway and Finland
Niemelä, Hassinen, Johansen, Kuusela, Länsman, Haantie, Kylmäaho
To recognize silvery pink salmon might be difficult for tourist
fishermen or even for some local fishermen early in the summer
In the second half of July and especially in August fishermen have no problem to distinguish Atlantic salmon and Pacific salmon in the catches
Fishermen do not like this new fish species in their
catches especially in the end of July and August. Why?
Why not pink salmon in the catches?
• Local fishermen are not get used to catch other species than salmon and seatrout
• Tourist fishermen have payed a lot of money to catch silvery Atlantic salmon
• Local fishermen catching Atlantic salmon with gillnets and weirs have an opinion that pink salmon in their fishing gears are scaring the real target, Atlantic salmon, away. Does this scaring help Atlantic salmon to avoid to be caught with
traditional fishing methods?
• In rod fishing from shore and boat pink salmon is disturbing the real Atlantic salmon fishery. Maybe distroying the fly?
• Pink salmon population is the highest in the River Tana during the small salmon migration in the middle of July
• Pink salmon is not eatable after it has lost the silvery coloration-however Atlantic salmon is caught and eaten although it is brown
First observations from Pacific salmon
• Fishermen did not recognize all the pink salmon especially early in July
• First observations from pink salmon in the River Tana
watershed in late 1960s’; in early and middle 1970s’ this new species appeared into the Tana watershed
• First juvenile (smolt) was caught with electrofishing c. 20. July in the year 1979 close to the the tributary river Borsejohka in Tana
• During the annual electofishing in the Tana system there has not been observed pink salmon smolts because usually this monitoring starts after pink smolts have left the river system
• Pink salmon catches have been caught from even- and odd year stocks
• Nowadays fishermen are informed better than earlier to report also pink salmon catches
• New reporting system introduced in 2017 is determing that all fishermen must inform detailed data from all their catches
Distribution in the River Tana watershed
-can migrate into the same areas as Atlantic salmon
-has been caught some hundreds of kilometers up in the watershed
Sites in the river Tana watershed where pink salmon was caught by local fishermen in Norway in the years 2012–
2015
-sites are indicating also the fishing pressure
Numbers of
fishermen who have informed
annual pink salmon catches on the
Finnish side in the Tana River in the years 1973–2008 -almost every year they have caught pink salmon since 1973
Pink salmon catches in Norway and Finland in the River Tana watershed
Finland
Year
1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 0
500 1000 1500
Norway
Catch (kg)
0 500 1000 1500
Norway and Finland
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000
Catch distributions of pink salmon between Norway and Finland in the River Tana watershed
Year
1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015
Percentage
0 25 50 75 100
Norway Finland
Annual pink salmon catches within fishing
areas in Tana, Norway, in 2004-2017
Máskejohka
Year
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 0
2 4 6 8 10 12
Iešjohka
0 1 2 3
Kárášjohka
0 2 4 6 8
Anárjohka
0 1 2 3
Grenseområde
Catch (kg)
0 50 100 150 200 250
Tana munning - Tana bru
0 50 100 150 200 250
Total
0 200 400 600 800 1000
Tana bru - riksgrensen
0 100 200 300 400
Catch distributrion between fishing areas in Norway in 2004-2017
Year
2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016
Percentage
0 25 50 75 100
Máskejohka Iešjohka Kárášjohka Anárjohka Grenseområde
Tana bru - riksgrensen Tana munning - Tana bru
Pink salmon catches in Norway in the River Tana watershed in 2017
Tana munning - Langnes Langnes - Tana bru
Tana bru - riksgrensen Riksgrensen - Lákšjohka
Lákšjohka - Luosnjárguoika Luosnjárguoika- Borsejohka
Borsejohka - Ráidenjárga Anárjohka
Kárášjohka Máskejohka
Number of pink salmon
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
Pink salmon catches in Norway in the River Neidenelva during the last 11 years
Year
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
Number of pink salmon
0 50 100 150 200
Pink salmon catches in Finland in the River Neidenelva -usually very low catches of pink salmon but it is possible to find spawners in the large spawning areas up in the system
-decliging trend in the numbers of salmon gillnets which could allow pink salmon to spawn succesfull.
Pink salmon
1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010
Catch (kg)
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350
Timing of pink salmon catches in 2017 in the rivers Tana and Neidenelva
Finland (tourists)
0 5 10 15 20 25
Norway
Number of pink salmon
0 20 40 60
Total in the River Tana
0 20 40 60 80 100
Finland
0
Norway
0 5 10 15
Total in the River Neiden
0
June July August June July August
Weekly numbers of pink salmon in the River Neidenelva (Norway), (weeks 23-26 are in June)
Week
23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35
Number of fish
0 5 10 15 20 25
Daily numbers of pink salmon below and above the large waterfall (Skoltefossen) in the River Neiden in 2017
-pink salmon can pass the fishladder (fishway) or even the big fall
Sone 1-3
Number of pink salmon
0 5 10 15 20
Sone 4-6
0 1 2 3
June July August
Large fall in the River
Neidenelva
(Skoltefossen) does not
prohibit totally pink salmon
migration to the uppermost
areas
Occurrence of pink salmon in the daily
catches in
various fishing areas in
Norway in the River Tana
watershed in 2004-2017
Máskejohka
1 2
Kárášjohka
Number of pink salmon
0 1 2
Anárjohka
0 1
Iešjohka
0 1
Grenseområde
0 2 4 6 8 10
Tana munning - riksgrensen
0 20 40 60
Total
0 20 40 60 80 100
Curves are
indicating the mean timing of pink
salmon catches in Norway for different fishing areas in
2004-2017
Month
Máskejohka Anárjohka Kárášjohka Grenseområde
Tana munning - riksgrensen Total
June July August
Curves are indicating the annual timing of pink salmon within the area from Tana rivermouth to common border area
June July August
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
Median date of capture for pink salmon in the area from the Tana rivermouth to common border area
Year
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
Month JuneJulyAugust
Weekly numbers of pink salmon in the Norwegian and Finnish catches in the River Tana mainstem in
2017
-catches in the area Tana rivermouth-Tana Bridge are indicating the migration period into the river Tana
-migration period is overlapping with the migration of small
Atlantic salmon
Grenseområde (Norway and Finland)
0 50 100 150
Tana bru - riksgrensen (Norway)
23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34
Number of pink salmon
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Tana munning - Tana bru (Norway)
23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 0
10 20 30 40 50
Cumulative catches in the River Tana for Norway and Finland
-most of the Norwegian pink salmon catches is taken in the
lowermost area (within 60 km) in the Tana mainstem and earlier than pink salmon is ascending into the common border area
Month
Cumulative percentage
0 25 50 75 100
Finnish Tana Norwegian Tana
June July August
Pink salmon weekly catches in 2004-2014 in Norway in the River Tana watershed and catch distribution between fishing methods
-weir is the most important fishing method to catch pink salmon
Week
24 26 28 30 32 34 36
Number of pink salmon
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Rod Weir Gillnet Drift net
Week
24 26 28 30 32 34 36
Percentage
0 25 50 75 100
Pink salmon proportions (%) over the years between the fishing methods in the River Tana maistem in Norway
-pink salmon is caught also with rod and gillnets but mainly with weirs
Year
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
Percentage
0 25 50 75 100
Rod Weir Gillnet Driftnet
How pink salmon was caught in
Norway in the River Tana watershed in 2017
- waterlevel was higher than normal for the use of effective gillnet
fishing methods
Tana munning - Langnes Langnes - Tana bru
Tana bru - riks grensen
Riksgrensen - Lákšjohka Lákšjohka - Luosnjárguoika
Luosnjárguoika- Borsejohka Borsejohka - Ráidenjárga
Anárjohka Kárášjohka
Máske johka
Percentage
0 25 50 75 100
Rod Fly Lure Gillnet Weir
Ecology: migrates from the river as small smolt quite early- before middle of July; is feeding in shore areas (blue line in the scale) some time, migrates to open sea. Is growing also in the late spring and early summer in the year of ascend
The length when 0+ pink salmon (post smolt) is leaving the shore areas at sea has large annual variations. This size variation may reflect to the later survival at sea.
”Smaller size may result to higher mortality”
Year
1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010
Length (cm)
10 15 20 25 30 35
Males Females
Sex distributions
-almost 50:50 but some annual variation (depends on the numbers of samples or catch report information)
Year
1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015
Percentage
0 25 50 75 100
Males Females
Females are ascending in higher proportions than males in June and early July into the River Tana
Month
Number of pink salmon
0 20 40 60 80 100
June July August
Males Females
Month
Cumulative percentage
0 25 50 75 100
Males Females
June July August
Is fishing from the shore exploiting more females than males and is fishing from boat exploiting more males?
-shore fishing is mainly fly fishing. Data from Tana in 2017 in tourist fishery in Finland
Shore Boat
Percentage
0 25 50 75 100
Males Females
Pink salmon is growing at sea only one year. The size of females is between 0.5 kg to 2.3 kg and of males
between 0.3 kg to 3.5 kg. Males can be as large as 4 kg.
Males
Weight (kg)
0,0 0,5 1,0 1,5 2,0 2,5 3,0 3,5 4,0 0
5 10 15 20
Females
Weight (kg)
0,0 0,5 1,0 1,5 2,0 2,5 3,0 3,5 4,0
Number of pink salmon
0 5 10 15 20 25
Annual variation in the size of pink
salmon is reflecting the variations in the environment in
Barents Sea (food availability, sea
temperature)
-can increased sea temperature with increased primary
production result to high abundance of pink
salmon in northern rivers
Year
1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015
Length (cm)
30 40 50 60 70 80
1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015
Weight (kg)
0,5 1,0 1,5 2,0 2,5 3,0 3,5 4,0
Males Females
In tourist fishing in Finland early in July most pink salmon has been caught from
shore (fishing with fly) but towards 10. of
August the proportion of catch from boat
(mainly fishing with lure) is increasing significantly
Number of pink salmon
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Month
Percentage
0 25 50 75 100
Shore
June July August
June July August
In the River Neidenelva pink salmon catch during the latest years is taken 50:50% with fly and lure.
Pink salmon
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2007-2015 0
25 50 75 100
%
Fly Lure
