Arctic Grayling Provide Vital Info

by | Jun 1, 2016 | News | 0 comments

Dismal 5

Arctic Grayling Provide Vital Info-In recent years, the chapter has been heavily involved with a project to collect and analyze data on Arctic grayling distribution and abundance within the Pembina River watershed.  The Pembina River represents the southernmost extension of Arctic grayling within the arctic basin, not only in Alberta but Canada and North America. Club volunteers have undertaken a systematic angling survey on 10 tributaries of the Pembina River recording fish size and location, habitat conditions, water temperature along with any other pertinent observations. Volunteers also collected tissue samples from partial fin clips that were provided to a graduate student from the University of Alberta for DNA profiling.  This information is invaluable to gaining insight into the genetic diversity of Arctic grayling to improve the success of any future re-stocking programs within the region.

For their work on Arctic Grayling the chapter was awarded a prestigious National Recreational Fisheries Award in February of 2014 by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

In 2016, as part of the chapter’s ongoing Arctic Grayling conservation project in the upper Pembina River watershed, members of the Trout Unlimited Canada (TUC) Edmonton Chapter implanted Passive Integrated Transponder (PIT) tags into a number of Arctic Grayling. The objective was to track spawning and post-spawning movements in Dismal Creek, thus helping to broadly locate critical habitats. When fish were initially caught, the tag was injected into their flesh and information such as capture location, fish size, and tag identifier was recorded in a provincial government database.

Prior to 2016, recapture data was obtained using a handheld reader after fish were caught by volunteer anglers. This spring, solar powered long-range antennas were deployed in Dismal Creek to record the movement of PIT tagged fish as they moved upstream and downstream in the channel. To date, the following observations have been recorded:

  • 32% of the Arctic Grayling tagged in Dismal Creek by NLFF/TU volunteers in past years have been detected by the in-stream arrays.  These recaptures confirmed the presence of an upstream spawning migration into Dismal Creek, from the Pembina River.
  • Several grayling were detected mid-April at the downstream antenna and then re-detected at another antenna 25 km upstream.  In some cases, grayling made the trip in two days, others took longer.
  • There is a large log jam that was previously thought to be a fish passage barrier.  Over half of the grayling that the chapter tagged on Dismal Creek made their way through the log jam this spring, indicating that log jam may not be a total migration barrier as previously thought.
  • One fish made its way downstream from the upstream antennae to the downstream antenna in 3 weeks. This individual may have been undertaking a downstream post-spawning migration to the Pembina River, although previous data suggests that most grayling remain Dismal Creek for the summer.
  • Some the fish were originally tagged as far as 25 km upstream from the antenna systems, exhibiting a confirmed migration distance exceeding 50 km.
  • One PIT tag array (including batteries and solar panels) was made available through a grant from the Alberta Conservation Association.
  • The second array was loaned from Trout Unlimited Canada’s Guelph office.  A great example of collaboration, as TUC staff identified an opportunity to leverage equipment from a different part of the country.

Trout Unlimited Canada is a nonprofit, charitable organization. Donations are tax deductible as allowed by law.