Atlantic Salmon Habitat Assessment of the Kenamu and Traverspine Rivers in Labrador using temperature and water level data

This project seeks to gain additional knowledge on the riverine habitat preferences of Atlantic Salmon in central Labrador, specifically on two non-scheduled Atlantic salmon rivers; the Kenamu and Traverspine Rivers, both crossing the southern Trans Labrador Highway and emptying into Lake Melville.

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) will lead the scientific research with in-kind support for project design for the water level and temperature logger deployments as well as data analysis. DFO will add the data collected from the temperature loggers with the other data collected on Newfoundland and Labrador rivers each summer and include it in the usual temperature data analysis in the fall. The Atlantic Salmon Federation (ASF) will aid with field work and we hope to partner with Nunatsiavut Government, Innu Nation and the NunatuKavut Community Council.

LHAFA plans to set up 10 sites per river with retrieval in the fall. An additional logger,deployed in the same location, will be left out over winter and retrieved the next summer. This will provide valuable information about temperatures throughout the fall/winter/spring months as well, and determine impacts on spawners or juveniles, or the phenological timing as things cool down in the fall/winter and warm up in the spring months. Understanding the amount of variability in these rivers year-round is useful information that will increase understanding of how ambient temperature may be impacting Atlantic salmon through multiple life stages.