Evidence of Long-Distance Coastal Sea Migration of Atlantic Salmon, Salmo Salar, Smolts from Northwest England (River Derwent). Amy Green (
[email protected] ) University of Glasgow https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0306-6457 Hannele Honkanen University of Glasgow Faculty of Veterinary Medicine: University of Glasgow School of Veterinary Medicine Philip Ramsden Environment Agency Brian Shields Environment Agency Diego Delvillar Loughs Agency Melanie Fletcher Natural England Silas Walton Natural England Richard Kennedy AFBI: Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute Robert Rosell AFBI: Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute Niall O'Maoiléidigh Marine Institute James Barry Inland Fisheries Ireland Fred Whoriskey Dalhousie University Peter Klimley University of California Davis Colin E Adams University of Glasgow Faculty of Veterinary Medicine: University of Glasgow School of Veterinary Medicine Short communication Keywords: Salmo salar, smolt, acoustic telemetry, migration, Irish Sea. Posted Date: August 13th, 2021 DOI: https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-789556/v1 Page 1/12 License: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Read Full License Page 2/12 Abstract Combining data from multiple acoustic telemetry studies has revealed that west coast England Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.) smolts use a northward migration pathway through the Irish Sea to reach their feeding grounds. 100 Atlantic salmon smolts were tagged in May 2020 in the River Derwent, northwest England as part of an Environment Agency/Natural England funded project. Three tagged smolts were detected on marine acoustic receivers distributed across two separate arrays from different projects in the Irish Sea. One sh had migrated approximately 262km in 10 days from the river mouth at Workington Harbour, Cumbria to the northernmost receiver array operated by the SeaMonitor project; this is the longest tracked marine migration of an Atlantic salmon smolt migrating from United Kingdom.