Aquaculture and Fisheries Commons^™

Hydroacoustic Assessment Of Abundance And Diel Distribution Of Sockeye Salmon And Kokanee In The Sawtooth Valley Lakes, Idaho, D. Beauchamp, Chris Luecke, Wayne A. Wurtsbaugh, H. G. Gross, Phaedra E. Budy, S. Spaulding, R. Dilenger, C. P. Gubala

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

We used dual-beam hydroacoustics and echo integration techniques, combined with midwater trawling and gillnetting, to assess the abundance and distribution of the endangered Snake River juvenile sockeye salmon and resident kokanee (both Oncorhynchus nerka) in Sawtooth Valley lakes of Idaho during September 1991 and 1992. Abundance of O. nerka varied among the four lakes containing this species (12,500–257,000) and varied between years in Redfish Lake (86,400 in 1994 and 241,000 in 1992) and Alturas Lake (230,000 in 1991 and 257,000 in 1992). In Alturas Lake, where piscivore densities were high and zooplankton densities were low, small acoustic targets (≤18 cm …