'Fin-printing' to help track salmon

SEATTLE, Nov. 19 (UPI) -- A $4.1 million DNA "fin-printing" project will help scientists differentiate different populations of salmon genetically, the University of Washington reported.

The ability of salmon to migrate such extraordinary distances makes it hard at a management level to know whose fish are whose and at a biological level to unravel the mystery of their ocean migration.

The recently launched effort by the Seattle university's School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences aims to help determine who's who in the salmon travel world by collecting genetic information for thousands of Pacific Rim salmon populations and creating open-access databases for managers, treaty-makers and scientists, the university said in a news release.

Because salmon migrate extraordinary distances, managers have a hard time figuring out whose fish are whose. On a biological level, the database information could help solve the mystery of their ocean migration, researchers said.

Genetic markers, sometimes called DNA fingerprinting in humans, will be used to for the DNA "fin-printing" for fish when a bit of tissue from a fin is used for the analysis.