Some Aspects of Olfactory Perception in Migrating Adult Coho and Spring Salmon

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Abstract
A series of tests were conducted to investigate the sense of smell in migrating coho (Oncorhynchus kisutch) and spring salmon (O. tshawytscha). By pouring dilute solutions of each of 54 substances into the path of the salmon moving up a fish ladder at Stamp Falls, B.C., positive responses were noted by recording changes in the rate of migration. Representative samples of alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, esters, organic acids and oils, as well as shark repellent and a pulp-mill effluent caused no significant change in the migration. However, dilute water rinses of mammalian skins had distinct repellent action. An acute olfactory sense enabling adult Pacific salmon to detect predators from a downstream position was considered to have survival value. The use of mammalian predator skins to repel salmon from destructive river locations is suggested.

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