Recapture statistics from Haffjardara
A big one is put back at Cave pool on Haffjardara. Photos from Yngvi Óttarsson.
We have been looking at some interesting statistics from tagging and recapturing on Haffjardara over the weekend. The owners have been looking at the recapture average and found that it varies a great deal from year to year. One particular salmon last year really caught the eye.
Last years tagging program was the biggest so far with 156 salmon tagged dating from June 28th to August 18th. 19 salmon were recaught once, two of the actually recaught twice. Some salmon obviously never learn! It is a total of 21 recaptures for a percentage of 12,8. Eleven of these salmon were recaptured further upriver, four in the same pool and one had retreated, being caught again 19 days later and 16 pools further downstream.
The Haffjardara lodge.
One of these salmon must be placed as a form of phenomenon: It was caugth and tagged on July 7th. It was then recaptured the very same day, 31 pools further upriver! The the elapsed time from tagging to recapture was from zero to 80 days.
As far as the average in concerned, it varies. The program started in 1999 with the tagging of 45 salmon. Only one was recaught which is curious. There was no tagging in 2000, however 14 salmon were tagged in 2001 and 4 of them were recaught, an average of 29%. Since then, only once has the average been as high, and that was in 2003 when 22 of 73 tagged salmon were recaught for an average of 30%. Perhaps the most valid results are from 2005 and 2008 when tagged fish were in triple figures, 131 in 2005 and 156 last year. In 2005 there was a recapture average of 14% with 18 salmon recaught, while last year 21 were recaught for an average of 13%
Recapture statistics also vary from river to river. For instance, it is felt that in some rivers in the northeast the statistic might well be close to 25%.
