Wild Estonian and Russian sea trout (Salmo trutta) in Finnish coastal sea trout catches: results of genetic mixed-stock analysis

For responsible fisheries management of threatened species, it is essential to know the composition of catches and the extent to which fisheries exploit weak wild populations. The threatened Estonian, Finnish and Russian sea trout populations in the Gulf of Finland are targets of mixed-stock fisheries. The fish may originate from rivers with varying production capacities, from different countries, and they may also have either a wild or hatchery origin. In order to resolve the composition of Finnish coastal sea trout catches, we created a standardized baseline dataset of 15 DNA microsatellite loci for 59 sea trout populations around the Gulf of Finland and tested its resolution for mixed-stock analysis of 1372 captured fish. The baseline dataset provided sufficient resolution for reliable mixture analysis at regional group level, and also for most of the individual rivers stocks. The majority (76–80%) of the total catch originated from Finnish sea trout populations, 6–9% came from Russian and 12–15% from Estonian populations. Nearly all Finnish trout in the catch were of hatchery origin, while the Russian and Estonian trout were mostly of wild origin. The proportion of fish in the Finnish catches that originated from rivers with natural production was at least one fifth (22%, 19–23%). Two different spotting patterns were observed among the captured trout, with a small and sparsely spotted form being markedly more common among individuals of Russian (28%) and Estonian origin (22%) than among fish assigned to a Finnish origin (0.7%).