On 10 March the GWCT Fisheries Team detected the first returning PIT-tagged adult salmon of 2022 passing the antennae on the River Frome at East Stoke.
Here’s what we know about this individual:
- This salmon was PIT-tagged as a parr on 1 September 2019, where it was captured using electrofishing on the North Stream at Nine Hatches. Its length at that time was 9.6cm.
- It migrated to sea in April 2020, where it was last detected by the PIT-tag antennae on the main river at East Stoke on 13 April 2020 at 21:06.
- It was detected by the PIT-tag antennae at East Stoke on 10 March 2022 at 10:58 as a returning adult.
- The salmon spent two winters at sea – described as a 2 Sea Winter (2SW) salmon. They can also be called a Multi Sea Winter (MSW) salmon.
- From the video recording we have estimated this MSW salmon to be 75cm in length.
This is the earliest that we have recorded a returning PIT-tagged adult salmon. We usually start seeing the adults return in April. It’s also quite unusual for this fish to be detected during the day, as most of the MSW salmon travel at night this early in the year.
We don’t know at this stage whether the returning fish was male or female. However, a scale sample was taken during PIT-tagging two years ago and we will now use this sample to identify whether it was a male of female using genetics (funded by the SAMARCH project).
This salmon will now spend nine months in the river before spawning around Christmas time.
To find out more about GWCT Fisheries Research visit our Fishing section and read our Fisheries Reports, which present results from the research we undertake, including data collected by the fish counter.