Foraging, swimming performance and morphology of semi-wild and hatchery-reared landlocked salmon juveniles

The Saimaa landlocked salmon (Salmo salar m. sebago) in Finland is a critically endangered ecomorph due to the historical damming of rivers. The morph has been dependent on stockings of hatchery-reared juveniles for more than 40 years. Recently, various efforts have been taken to restore some of the earlier reproduction areas to return the natural life cycle. However, as the population has been reared in hatcheries over many generations and as the released fish generally suffer high post-release mortality, it is crucial to know whether domestication has affected the population’s fitness-related traits and to assess how the developmental environment affects salmon’s phenotype. In the present…