RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 



Growth of Young-of-the-Year Fishes 



Arctic grayling YOY averaged 26.5 mm in total length (n=13) 

 on June 18 (Table 3, Figure 2). Their length rapidly increased 

 to 97.9 mm by mid to late August. These lengths are similar to 

 those found by both Skaar (1988) and McMichael (1989) during the 

 previous years of this study, and considerably higher than the 

 lengths found by Liknes (1981) . YOY grayling found by Liknes 

 (1981) had a mean total length of 55.2 mm (n=44) during July 

 11-15, while YOY captured in this study during roughly the same 

 time period had a mean total length of 64.8 mm. Size variations 

 may be caused by differing growth rates at different sampling 

 sites, older age of YOY caused by earlier spawning and/or 

 emergence of fry, or as McMichael (1989) proposed, differences in 

 water temperatures. 



Young-of-the-year mountain whitefish and brook trout had 

 greater mean total lengths than grayling until the end of July, 

 when grayling YOY surpassed them in mean total length (Table 3, 

 Figure 2) . This indicates a rapid growth rate for the 

 spring-spawned grayling. Both McMichael (1989) and Skaar (1988) 

 reported lengths for brook trout and mountain whitefish in this 

 area during the past two summers similar to those reported here. 



Condition factors (K) were calculated for 31 YOY Arctic 

 grayling captured between August 14 and 22 of this year. The 

 mean K for this sample was 0.92. This condition factor was 



13 



