Furey, N.B., S.G. Hinch, A.G. Lotto, and D.A. Beauchamp. 2015. Extensive feeding on sockeye salmon Oncorhynchus nerka smolts by bull trout Salvelinus confluentus during initial outmigration into a small, unregulated, and inland British Columbia river. Journal of Fish Biology 86:392–401. doi:10.1111/jfb.12567
Abstract
Stomach contents were collected and analyzed from bull trout Salvelinus confluentus at the edge of the Chilko Lake and Chilko River in British Columbia, Canada. Virtually all identifiable prey items were outmigrating sockeye salmon Oncorhynchus nerka smolts, and stomach contents represented a large portion of estimated S. confluentus mass. The results demonstrate nearly exclusive and intense feeding by S. confluentus on outmigrant smolts, and supports recent telemetry observations of high disappearance rates of O. nerka smolts leaving large natural lake systems prior to entering high-order unregulated river systems.