What does crime scene technology have to do with Atlantic salmon restoration?
Millions of 1-1/2 inch long Atlantic salmon are stocked into streams that flow into the Connecticut River every spring. One fry looks pretty much like the next. This makes it difficult to determine which streams produce the most smolts and which are associated with the most returning adults. Managers want this information so they can choose the best sites for stocking all of these young fish. The young fish, or fry, are too small to tag or mark with conventional methods. So, researchers at the U.S. Geological Surveys Conte Anadromous Fish Research Center in Turners Falls, Massachusetts decided to try to fingerprint the fish. Most of us are familiar with the crime scene technology used to identify criminals from skin, hair, or blood samples. The same technology was used on the fish. It has revolutionized how fishery science monitors salmon. Heres how it works: Hatchery managers clip a tiny piece of the fin from each adult Atlantic salmon whether a sea-run salmon from the ocean or a dome
