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SALMON FAMILY--Salmonidae

SALMON, TROUT and CHAR SUBFAMILY--Salmoninae


     Salmon, trout and chars are fine-scaled fishes having more than 100 scales in the lateral line, adipose fin, and jaws and other bones with large teeth. The subfamily Salmoninae includes Northern fishes--salmons, trouts and chars--that live in fresh waters or grow in the sea but return to streams to spawn. The principal members of the Salmoninae in the Great Lakes region are the brook trout (char), lake trout (char), brown trout, Atlantic salmon, rainbow trout, coho salmon, chinook salmon, pink salmon, and kokanee salmon. The brook trout and several forms of lake trout are native to the area, whereas successful introductions include the brown trout, from Europe, the rainbow trout and Pacific salmon from the Pacific drainage, and the Atlantic salmon from eastern North America and Europe. Brook trout, brown trout and rainbow trout are principally cool stream dwellers, whereas several forms of lake trout are usually lake inhabitants. All of the salmon and trouts migrate during the breeding season. The stream trouts spawn in clear, shallow, moving water on cleaned gravel. Lake trout spawn on rocky reefs, especially those bearing the scent of previous generations of spawning lake trout. Smaller lake trout eat mostly insects; larger ones add small fish to the diet. Trout spawning seasons are: lake trout in the fall; brook trout in late summer to midwinter; brown trout in late fall to midwinter; rainbow trout in late winter to early spring. Chinook and coho salmon have been introduced since the 1960s to control alewife. Pink salmon were released accidently into a tributary of Lake Superior, then spread throughout the lakes and down the St. Lawrence River. The economic importance of trout and salmon in the Great Lakes region can hardly be overestimated. Lake trout formerly supported a large commercial fishery in the upper Great Lakes. The species was greatly depleted by predation by sea lamprey beginning in the 1940s and over exploitation in the 1940s. Angling for salmon and trout, with associated camping and boating, guides, gear, and transportation, is one of the greatest economic assets of many northern communities.