[env-trinity] CBB: Treating anxious outmigrating salmon

[Sari Sommarstrom]

Columbia Basin Bulletin

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Study Treats Migrating Salmon With Anxiety Medication, Says Limits Fear Of
The Unknown Downstream 
Posted on Friday, December 09, 2016 (PST) 


Current research from Umeå University in Sweden shows that the young
salmon's desire to migrate to the sea can partly be limited by anxiety.

 

Researchers have long tried to understand what factors affect the young
salmon's decision to migrate out to sea. Previous studies have indicated
that environmental factors such as temperature, light conditions and water
flow may play an important role. However, large parts of the within species
variation in fish migration remains unexplained.

 

A study  <http://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms13460>
http://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms13460 from Umeå University, published
in the journal Nature Communications, now shows that the salmon's
inclination to migrate is partly limited by its fear of the unknown
downstream.

 

"By treating salmon with an anxiolytic drug, anxiety medication that is, we
artificially changed the migration intensity of the salmon where treated
salmon travelled further and faster than untreated salmon," says Gustav
Hellström, one of the researchers behind the study. 

 

The research team studied how salmon migration was affected both in a lab,
where salmon migrated in a large artificial stream, and in a natural stream
outside of Umeå in Northern Sweden. In both environments, researchers found
that salmon treated with anxiety medication migrated nearly twice as fast as
salmon who had not been subjected to treatment.

 

Several billion animals migrate yearly and the study results show that
anxiety limits migration intensity, is not only important for understanding
salmon migration but also for understanding migration in general, says the
study. 

 

The study also has an ecotoxicological dimension as the quantity of
medication that the salmon was exposed to was low - in fact so low that it
measured lower than that found in wastewater in certain areas. 

 

"Even though salmon in Northern Sweden live in river-systems low to
moderately affected by contaminated wastewater it is not very likely that
exposure to anxiety medication is an environmental issue for these
populations right now. However, given the low dose used in the study we
cannot rule out that, with increasing human population and medical use, this
might become a problem in the near future" says Hellström.

 

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