The Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) population of the Matamek River, Quebec : 1967-1984 data report

Abstract

From 1967 to 1984 the Matamek Research Station, located near Sept-Iles, Quebec, was the focus of a research program on salmonid production in boreal river ecosystems. Research was conducted under the auspices of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and in cooperation with the Ministere du Loisir, de la Chasse et de la Peche du Quebec and representatives of several universities in Canada and the United States. One of the central activities throughout the history of the Station was monitoring of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) in the Matamek River. All salmon life history stages were involved, although the greatest effort was spent in estimates of parr population size at select sites and in estimates of population size, age and sex ratios of sea-run adults entering the river to spawn. Effort and methods were not consistent from year to year due to changes in program focus and improvements in techniques. Nonetheless, we believe the data represent the only long-term record for an Atlantic salmon population on the North Shore of the St. Lawrence. Heretofore, information on Atlantic salmon from the Matamek River was available only in published works or in the Matamek Annual Reports published by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Because of the potential value for analyses of salmon population dynamics and life history, we have assembled the raw data, with neither analysis nor interpretation, in this report. During the period of 1980-1984, considerable effort was exerted in collecting data from original sources (field notebooks, scale envelopes, etc.) and in correcting errors in the data. We cannot, of course, guarantee complete accuracy. Nonetheless, this collection of information is the most complete and accurate compilation possible at this time. The data are presented as records for individual fish, and are ordered by date and by life history stage. We include a key to the designations of columns and to conventions used in coding data. All entries are raw data as initially recorded and coded; no analyses are available beyond those used by various individual authors in their preparation of reports or publications. While these data are made available for general use through this compilation, we request that proper acknowledgment be given the Matamek Research Program of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, under whose directorship this compilation was accomplished.