Nice Great Lakes Trout & Salmon ID Guide

[craigdritchie]

This is a copied and pasted press release from the New York Sea Grant, which has just published a helpful ID guide to Great Lakes trout and salmon. There's a link at the end where you can download a PDF copy.

 

 

New York Sea Grant’s new first-ever full-color visual identification guide for the salmon and trout species found in Lake Ontario is now available. “Salmon and Trout of Lake Ontario: A Visual Identification Guide” illustrates the differences among the species, improving correct identification by anglers.

 

New York Sea Grant Coastal Community Development Specialist Mary E. Penney says, “This project was designed to improve the correct identification of Lake Ontario’s trout and salmon, and encourage ecologically-responsible angling and fish conservation.”

 

The guide’s 23 illustrations by artist Peter Thompson are anatomically accurate for fish that are often commonly misidentified species.

 

For example, says New York Sea Grant Fisheries Specialist David B. MacNeill, “There are fine physical differences between species such as Atlantic salmon and brown trout and steelhead and the female Coho salmon. This new guide allows viewers to more carefully distinguish between these species and follow the various angling regulations prescribed for them.”

 

The guide clearly identifies distinct fin, tail and mouth features for Atlantic, Chinook, Coho and the rarely seen pink salmon; and brown, brook, lake and steelhead/rainbow trout. The different life stages of the fish are also illustrated.

 

The guide is printed on waterproof, tear-resistant paper and folds to store easily in a typical tackle box.

 

New York Sea Grant collaborated with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to produce the guide with funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Sea Grant College Program.

 

The authors include Sea Grant’s MacNeill and Penney with NYSDEC Region 7 National Resources Supervisor Dan Bishop, NYSDEC Salmon River Coordinator Fran Verdoliva, and USGS Ecologist and Eastern Basin Ecosystems Branch Chief Jim Johnson. Great Lakes Fishery Commission Lake Ontario Sport Fishery Advisor Charles D. Blaas, retired Morrisville State College Provost, provided technical review.

 

“Lake Ontario experts partnered to produce this new fisheries resource for New York’s resident and visiting anglers. Use of the guide will promote wiser use of Lake Ontario fisheries and empower the public to play a more active role in maintaining sustainable salmonine recreational fisheries,” says Dr. Katherine Bunting-Howarth, Assistant Director for Cornell Cooperative Extension Coastal Programs, Ithaca, NY.

 

The guide will be available at New York Sea Grant Aquatic Invasive Species and Watercraft Inspection Educators programs and other educational events along the Lake Ontario shoreline. The guide is also online at www.seagrant.sunysb.edu/glsportfish/pdfs/SalmonTrout-LakeOntario2012.pdf.

 

Edited August 20, 2012 by Craig_Ritchie

[Roy]

Very useful guide Craig, thanks for posting it.

[Broker]

Thanks for posting that, I've been confused identifying the difference in some of those fish in pictures.

[Luke V.]

Thanks for posting this!

 

Saved, printed and laminated ready for my tackle bag

[GreenCanada]

Wow! Awesome info, thanks for giving us a heads up!

[Snidley]

Simple and easy to understand because it's a series of pictures featuring key anatomical differences within a class of fish in a waterbody. Great work NYSDEC, NYSG and USGS. Environmental, Conservation and Wildlife authorities in New York State are light years ahead of the buffoons running things here in Ontario. From stocking, to limits, to education and research they are constantly out front to the point that all we have to do here is copy what they have done yet we can't or more likely, won't do so. Makes one wonder. Great little illustration for all anglers that might be confused about species identification. Lake run Browns and Atlantic Salmon truly are very close in appearance since they are in fact cousins and many an angler claiming to have caught an Atlantic has in fact caught a lake run Brown. Maybe this handy illustration should be passed around to CRAA, OFAH MNR et al just to make sure they can count properly.

[Hairpy]

WE can count just fine Snidley CRAA's not doing enough for the fishery because you're not there , we would love more of your quality input

 

Joseph