Some factors governing the freshwater development of the Salmo Salar and their influence in limiting the maximum output of migrant smolts

Abstract

Despite the plethora of scientific and popular literature dealing with the life-history of Salmo Salar which has resulted from careful observations, or fertile imaginations of writers ever since the time of Pliny, exact knowledge of much of the salmon's lifecycle is still not only uncertain but practically unexplored. In view of the great increase in the economic value of Atlantic salmon in recent times, both as a commodity of food and hence as the centre of an appreciable minor national industry, and also as providing a form of sport lucrative to those who can provide it, and productive of extensive employment in many districts otherwise barren of occupation, exploitation and development of natural potentialities for salmon fisheries demands intensified scientific investigation.