QUINNAT SALMON

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 185, 30 March 1932, Page 7

QUINNAT SALMON

possible migration s in new zealand waters. wanganui specimen. The discovery of a quinnat salmon in the Wanganui River opens up an interesting field as to the possible ihigrations of these fish in New Zealand waters. They are found scattered over a very wide range of coasts in the countries they come from in the Northern Hemisphere, but, whiie they have a great fondness for Arctic waters, they do not appear to care for the warmer seas. New Zealand, temperate as it is in climate, has only a small coastal range of latitude compared with the American, Asian, and European habitats of salmon, but it is doubtful if the quinnat salmon would be likely to favour the seas in the extreme north of the North Island, so that the coastal range is still further cxirtailed. Cold currents from the Antarctie vary so considerably, however, from year to year*, that the annual migrations of quinnat in New Zealand may vary accordingly. How to Tell a Quinnat. 'It was the opinion of Mr: Saddler, who forwarded the fish taken in the Wanganui River to the Chief Inspeetor of Fisheries, that it was an Atlantic salmon smolt, but that officer had no difficulty in determining that it was a quinnat, the first to be found so far north. ' The anal fin had 16 branched rays, whereas in the Atlantic salmon and trout the number of branched anal rays is never more than 10. An Atlantic smolt from the Te Anau district has nine of these rays in the anal fin, and a quinnat smolt from Hakataramea has 15. The upper jaw in the specimen from the Wanganui River is long, and extends behind the hinder margin of the eye, whereas in the Atlantic salmon smolts there is a shortei* upper jaw extending no further back than the pupil of the eye. The short deep body was typical of the quinnat. The Atlantic, at any rate in the parr or smolt stages, is" a slender, elongated fish. Perhaps the most readily distinguishing characteristic of the quinnat in all stages is the comparatively short distance between the hinder end of the ventral fins and the front edge of the anal fin. The only other salmon which the forwarded smolt might have been, said Mr. Hefford, was the Soekeye, but it had only 22 gill rakers, which agreed with the quinnat characteristie, while the Soekeye has 30. N.Z. Spread of Quinnat. The first quinnat eggs were hatch'ed at Hakataremea in 1907, and while some were retained for further stockiiig of the Waitaki tributaries, most of the attempts to acclimatise the fish in other streams were for a number of years confined to the Hokitika (West Coast) and Wairau (Marlborough) rivers, without apparent success. Some were put into the Upper Clutha, at Pembroke, and these aecount for the lake-dwelling quinnat in the Wanaka. Others were liberated in the Kawarau, near Queenstown, accounting for the lake quinnat in Wakatipu. About 30,000 were put into the Seaforth McKenzie River in the Fiord country in 1910, but there is no definite proof of the success of these liberations. There have been accounts of the sighting of quinnat in the Sounds, but as there is a elose similarity in appearance of quinnat and kahawai in the sea — the Australian kahawai is "sea salmon" — the reports are not sufficiently convincing. Last season it was reported that quinnat had been taken at the mouth of a big river south of Hokitika, but the reports could not be verified. Lake Kaneiri has a definite stock of iand-locked quinnat. From 1917 to date annual consignments of about half a million eggs have been sent to Wairau, Marlborough, but though quinnat from that river have been identified, the numbers as let have not been appreciable.