Increasing conservation and animal-welfare concerns have driven the development of non-lethal sampling of fish populations, with the use of muscle tissue biopsies now being routinely applied as a sampling method in the wild. Crucial to the success of non-lethal sampling, however, is an evaluation of the short- and long-term consequences of the treatment and ultimately the determination of how these may affect organism mortality and other fitness-related traits. The current study evaluated the use of a dorsal muscle biopsies on post-spawned Atlantic salmon emigrating to sea and undertaking a 2-month long-feeding migration before returning to spawn. Using mark-recapture, return rates and growth were compared between fish that were biopsied and externally tagged, and a control group tagged only with external tags. The biopsy treatment showed no lasting effects on fish as estimated from the two key fitness-related parameters. Results, therefore, suggest the technique can be more widely applied to gather information on marine migrating Atlantic salmon and other anadromous fishes that can be intercepted as they descend and ascend rivers during seasonal migrations. Coupled with modern tagging technologies, the use of biopsies may facilitate an improved understanding of movement and its consequences in terms of feeding patterns and growth.

中文翻译：

---

评估背肌活检对成年大西洋鲑鱼生长和海洋返回率的影响。

越来越多的保护和动物福利问题推动了鱼类种群非致死性采样的发展，现在在野外常规使用肌肉组织活检作为采样方法。然而，非致命性采样成功与否的关键在于评估治疗的短期和长期后果，并最终确定这些后果如何影响机体死亡率和其他与健身有关的性状。当前的研究评估了在产卵后的大西洋鲑鱼向海迁移并在返回产卵之前进行了2个月的长期进食迁移过程中使用背肌活检的情况。使用标记捕获，比较了活检和外部标记的鱼与仅用外部标记标记的对照组之间的返回率和生长。根据两个与健身有关的关键参数，活检处理对鱼类没有持久影响。因此，结果表明，该技术可以更广泛地用于收集有关大西洋鲑鱼和其他淡水鱼类在海洋中迁移的信息，这些季节性鱼类在季节性迁移过程中由于下降和上升而被拦截。结合现代标签技术，活检的使用可以促进对运动及其对进食方式和生长的影响的了解。