First Dolly Vardens

No, I didn’t say Dolly Parton … I said Dolly Varden !!

Dolly Varden photos

Young Dolly Varden have eight to ten, wide, oval blotches or parr marks contrasting with the mottled olive-brown color of their body. The sea-run fish are silvery with an olive-green to brown color on the dorsal surface and numerous red to orange spots on their sides. As spawning season approaches, the mature males become brilliant red on the lower body surface, and the lower fins become reddish-black with a white leading edge. Mature females are similar, but are less brightly colored. Males develop an extended lower jaw called a kype, which hooks upward and fits into a groove in the upper jaw. A kype also forms in the females, but is considerably less developed.

Dolly Varden belong to a group of trout-like fish called char (Salvelinus sp). The primary visual distinction between char and trout and salmon are that char have light spots on their dark body sides while trout and salmon usually have black spots on their light colored sides.

Dolly Varden have a dark history in Alaska that lasted from 1921 through 1939. During this time it was believed that Dolly Varden preyed heavily on commercially important and valuable young salmon. A bounty ranging from 2 to 5 cents was paid for each Dolly Varden tail turned into officials. It was thought that by eliminating Dolly Varden as a species the survival of juvenile salmon populations would greatly increase. It is now known this idea was totally erroneous as Dolly Varden are not highly predatory and were never responsible for any decline in salmon populations. However, 6 million tails were turned in for payment before the program ended in 1939, when 20,000 of the tails submitted for payment turned out to be mostly from Coho salmon.