PNNL

Abstract

In 2000 Pacific Northwest National Laboratory initiated a two-year study to investigate the metabolic rate and swimming performance and to estimate the total energy used (i.e., aerobic and anaerobic) by adult spring Chinook salmon migrating upstream through a large hydropower dam on the Columbia River. The investigation involved one year of laboratory study and one year of field study at Bonneville Dam. The objectives of the laboratory study, reported here, were to 1) measure active rates of oxygen consumption of adult spring chinook salmon at three water temperatures over a range of swimming speeds; 2) estimate the Ucrit of adult spring chinook salmon; and 3) monitor EMGs of red and white muscle in the salmon over a range of swimming speeds. Future papers will report on the results of the field study. Our results indicated that the rate of oxygen consumption and red and white muscle activity in adult spring chinook salmon were strongly ocorrelated with swimming speed over a range of fish sizes and at three different temperatures. Active oxygen consumption increased linerarly with swim speed before leveling off at speeds at or above Ucrit. This pattern was similar at each water temperature and indicated that fish were approaching their maximal aerobic oxygen consummption at higher swim speeds. Modeling showed that temperature, but not size or sex, influenced the relation between V02 and swim speed, thus a V02-swim speed model based on temperature (but independent of sex and size) should be a biologically relevant way of estimating the energy use of fish in the wild.