Towards Sustainable Fishing and Biodiversity Preservation of Northwest Russian Salmonid Stocks by Using Molecular Genetic Techniques for Stock and Parasite Monitoring

Abstract
The salmonid populations of northwest Russia are of immense social and economic importance for the region as they are a significant source of income for local residents in the form of fishing tourism. Due to their pristine nature, they are also of great biodiversity importance for the entire European region as the salmonid populations of other European countries have been decimated due to overfishing, increased pollution, improper stock transfers, and infections by parasites such as Gyrodactylus. Therefore, in order to reconcile the sometime contradictory requirements for biodiversity preservation and sustainable fishing, it is important to establish a sound biological basis for the monitoring and management of northwest Russian salmonid stocks prior to human induced population declines, and to better understand the processes that may be involved in different populations being susceptible or resistant to parasites such as Gyrodactylus. By utilising modern population and conservation genetic analysis techniques, the aims of the project include:

1. Development of a sound biological basis for salmonid stock monitoring in order to promote sustainable management of fisheries and fishing tourism in the northwest Russia region;
2. Using genetic markers, to delineate Gyrodactylus tolerant and susceptible salmon stocks and subsequent identification of infectious parasite strains in potential vector (tolerant) populations;
3. Identification of gene sequence (SNP) variation between Gyrodactylus tolerant and susceptible salmon stocks in immunologically relevant genes;
4. To inform local Russian and Finnish fisheries authorities of the results in order to facilitate biodiversity preservation and sustainable harvesting;
5. To increase the molecular genetic competence of our Russian collaborators, both among individuals and organisations.

PROJECT WEB-SITE- http://www.helsinki.fi/~primmer/russian_salmon/

Project leader: Craig Primmer, PH.D., DOCENT, Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, P.O. Box 65, 00014 University of Helsinki, Finland, tel. +358-(0)9-191 57685, fax. +358-(0)9-191 57694,
craig.primmer(at)helsinki.fi, http://www.helsinki.fi/~primmer/        

Researchers:
Anni Tonteri, University of Helsinki, anni.tonteri(at)helsinki.fi
Doc. Jaakko Lumme, University of Oulu, jaakko.lumme(at)oulu.fi
Post-doc (to be appointed), University of Oulu,
Dr. Alexey Veselov, Karelian Research Centre, Russian Academy of Science, Petrozavodsk, veselov(at)krc.karelia.ru
Dr. Igor Bakhmet, Karelian Research Centre, Russian Academy of Science, Petrozavodsk, ibahmet(at)krc.karelia.ru
Ludmila Bondareva, Karelian Research Centre, Russian Academy of Science, Petrozavodsk, bondareva(at)bio.krc.karelia.ru
Sergey Titov, State Research Institute of Lake and River Fisheries, St. Petersburg, titov(at)admiral.ru
Dr. Dmitry Sendek, State Research Institute of Lake and River Fisheries, St. Petersburg, sendek(at)mail.ru

Project description