Report of the Study Group on Salmon Age Determination (SGSAD)

The  most  important  TOR’s  in  the  Study  Group  on  Salmon  Age  Determination  [SGSAD] meeting in St. Petersburg concerned the use of otoliths in age determination and the results of the scale reading blind test that had been going on amongst SGSAD members during 2008. In  a  Swedish  study  on  the  usefulness  of  salmon  otoliths,  it  was  found  that  neither  ground nor sawed otolith surfaces could be used in as accurate ageing of years as scales  can  be  used  in.  The  otolith  surfaces  were  stained  with  neutral  red.  So  far,  it  seems that salmon otoliths are useful in other kinds of studies such as the analysis of strontium‐calcium relationship, which is related to migration patterns of fish, even as early fry stages.