Fly Rod & Reel cites Kinnison in article on saving ‘salter’ brook trout
Michael Kinnison, a professor of evolutionary biology at the University of Maine, was mentioned in a Fly Rod & Reel magazine article about conserving brook trout known as “anadromous brook trout” or “salters.” The fish spawn in freshwater but don’t spend years at sea or undertake long migrations, according to the article. They frequently trade between salt, brackish and freshwater, sometimes in the span of 24 hours, the article states. Kinnison studied five of the Maine trout caught by a volunteer group to see how much time they had spent in the salt. “We can reconstruct through time where a fish has been,” Kinnison said. “Barium is often a signature of freshwater. And in some fish both strontium and barium signatures go up; that may be a sign that they’re using inshore estuarine habitats in salt marsh as opposed to going to sea. We’d like to get more information than just salty or less salty, find out if a population really undertakes more extensive migration or is dependent on river mouth and marsh.”