Study
Evidence for Geomagnetic Imprinting as a Homing Mechanism in Pacific Salmon
Putman, Nathan F.; Lohmann, Kenneth J.; Putman, Emily M.; Quinn, Thomas P.; Klimley, A. Peter; Noakes, David L. G.
Current Biology, 2013
Compared which side of Vancouver Island returning sockeye used each year with the drift of the geomagnetic field at the two possible entrances, over more than half a century of fishery records.
- Studied in
- Oncorhynchus nerka
- Sample size
- fifty-six years of fishery records for returning sockeye salmon
The proportion of fish using each route tracked which entrance more closely matched the magnetic signature present when that cohort left the river as juveniles.
What it means
The authors' reading, and ours. Where they differ, that difference is the point.
How the authors put it
Salmon imprint on the magnetic signature of their natal region and use it to return to the right stretch of coast, with olfactory cues taking over close to the river.
How NatureHQ reads it
The record that completes the salmon answer without displacing the old one. Smell explains the last few kilometres and cannot explain the first three thousand, because a river’s odour does not reach the open Pacific. Two mechanisms, two scales, and the popular version keeps only the second.
- Correlational, from fishery catch data rather than tracked individuals.
- Other things that vary with the field over decades — temperature, currents — are hard to exclude entirely.
- One species, one island, one set of entrances.
Fifty-six years of salmon catches, and which way round an island they came
If smell only works near the river, what brings a salmon back to the right coast after years in the open ocean?
What this study is used for on NatureHQ
One study can inform several subjects. Here is everywhere this one is cited.
Published by: Cell PressPublished in a Cell Press journal.
doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2012.12.041
Checked against Crossref on 2026-09-28, and they agree on the title, the authors and the year.
NatureHQ summarises research in its own words and does not reproduce published text. Reviewed 2026-09-03.