ATLANTIC SALMON

Taranaki Daily News, 27 August 1930, Page 5

ATLANTIC SALMON

> SOME PUNY 'SPECIMEN'S: ; One of the best sporting fish in Etf: rope is tlie atlantic 'salmon, but th© theory that they never leave land-lock-ed waters for the open sea receives no support from the condition of the few which have’been kept in one of the races of the Acclimatiatiqn Society’© hatchery in Christchurch, says the Press. This species of salmon has been introduced quite successfully into Lake Te Anau and its outlet, the Wai.au River, where they now provide good fishing, but an attempt made two or three seasons ago to acclimatise them to Lak® Coleridge presumably failed, for of the thousands of fry obtained from th© Government and liberated there, few, if any, reached maturity. These in th© Christchurch hatchery are of the same stock. For two years they hav© been, fed and eared for, but they have grown only to the size of small minnows—about three inches in length and about two ounces in weight. ■Brown trout of the same age, which have lived in the same, stream, are two pounders, and beside them the..salmon look very stunted creatures. But Atlantic salmon at two years are not commonly thus, and the poor condition of these particular fish seems to suggest that they have not been allowed to follow their natural habits; that is that they -have been kept in land-locked water instead of being free to go dow n to the sea. and return to fresh water to spawn. ’ . Whatever th© reason the few in the Gardens are puny specimens, and not at all what Atlantic salmon of two years should be even in their adopted country, New Zealand, for plump salmon landed from T© Anau have not been much more than two years of age.