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Salmon

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Salmon



 
 
Salmon is the common name for several species of fish
Fish

A fish is any marine biology vertebrate animal that is typically ectothermic , covered with scale , and equipped with two sets of paired fins and several unpaired fins....
 of the family Salmonidae
Salmonidae

Salmonidae is a Family of ray-finned fish, the only living family of the Order Salmoniformes. It includes salmon, trout, Salvelinus, freshwater whitefishes and grayling ....
. Several other fish in the family are called trout
Trout

Trout are a number of species of freshwater fish belonging to the Salmoninae subfamily of the Salmonidae family. Salmon belong to some of the same genera as trout but, unlike most trout, most salmon species spend almost all their lives in salt water....
,the difference is often attributed to the migratory life of the salmon as compared to the residential behaviour of trout, this holds true for the Salmo genus
Atlantic salmon

Atlantic salmon, known scientifically as Salmo salar, is a species of fish in the family Salmonidae, which is found in the northern Atlantic Ocean and in rivers that flow into the Atlantic and the Pacific....
. Salmon live in both the Atlantic
Atlantic Ocean

The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions; with a total area of about 106.4 million square kilometres . It covers approximately one-fifth of the Earth's surface....
 (one migratory species Salmo salar
Atlantic salmon

Atlantic salmon, known scientifically as Salmo salar, is a species of fish in the family Salmonidae, which is found in the northern Atlantic Ocean and in rivers that flow into the Atlantic and the Pacific....
) and Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. Its name is derived from the Latin name Mare Pacificum, "peaceful sea", bestowed upon it by the Portugal explorer Ferdinand Magellan....
s, as well as the Great Lakes
Great Lakes

The St. Lawrence River Great Lakes are a chain of fresh water lakes located in eastern North America, on the Canada ? United States border. Consisting of Lakes Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, Lake Erie, and Lake Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth....
 (approximately a dozen species of the genus Oncorhynchus
Oncorhynchus

Oncorhynchus is a genus of in the family Salmonidae; it contains the Pacific salmons and Pacific trouts. The name of the genus is derived from the Greek language onkos and rynchos , in reference to the "kype" - the hooked jaw of males in mating season....
).

Typically, salmon are anadromous
Fish migration

Many types of fish migration on a regular basis, on time scales ranging from daily to annual, and over distances ranging from a few meters to thousands of kilometers....
: they are born in fresh water
Fresh Water

Fresh Water is the debut album by Australian rock and blues singer Alison McCallum, released in 1972. Rare for an Australian artist at the time, it came in a gatefold sleeve....
, migrate to the ocean
Ocean

An ocean is a major body of Seawater, and a principal component of the hydrosphere. Approximately 71% of the Earth's surface is covered by ocean, a World Ocean that is customarily divided into several principal oceans and smaller seas....
, then return to fresh water to reproduce.






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Salmon is the common name for several species of fish
Fish

A fish is any marine biology vertebrate animal that is typically ectothermic , covered with scale , and equipped with two sets of paired fins and several unpaired fins....
 of the family Salmonidae
Salmonidae

Salmonidae is a Family of ray-finned fish, the only living family of the Order Salmoniformes. It includes salmon, trout, Salvelinus, freshwater whitefishes and grayling ....
. Several other fish in the family are called trout
Trout

Trout are a number of species of freshwater fish belonging to the Salmoninae subfamily of the Salmonidae family. Salmon belong to some of the same genera as trout but, unlike most trout, most salmon species spend almost all their lives in salt water....
,the difference is often attributed to the migratory life of the salmon as compared to the residential behaviour of trout, this holds true for the Salmo genus
Atlantic salmon

Atlantic salmon, known scientifically as Salmo salar, is a species of fish in the family Salmonidae, which is found in the northern Atlantic Ocean and in rivers that flow into the Atlantic and the Pacific....
. Salmon live in both the Atlantic
Atlantic Ocean

The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions; with a total area of about 106.4 million square kilometres . It covers approximately one-fifth of the Earth's surface....
 (one migratory species Salmo salar
Atlantic salmon

Atlantic salmon, known scientifically as Salmo salar, is a species of fish in the family Salmonidae, which is found in the northern Atlantic Ocean and in rivers that flow into the Atlantic and the Pacific....
) and Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. Its name is derived from the Latin name Mare Pacificum, "peaceful sea", bestowed upon it by the Portugal explorer Ferdinand Magellan....
s, as well as the Great Lakes
Great Lakes

The St. Lawrence River Great Lakes are a chain of fresh water lakes located in eastern North America, on the Canada ? United States border. Consisting of Lakes Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, Lake Erie, and Lake Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth....
 (approximately a dozen species of the genus Oncorhynchus
Oncorhynchus

Oncorhynchus is a genus of in the family Salmonidae; it contains the Pacific salmons and Pacific trouts. The name of the genus is derived from the Greek language onkos and rynchos , in reference to the "kype" - the hooked jaw of males in mating season....
).

Typically, salmon are anadromous
Fish migration

Many types of fish migration on a regular basis, on time scales ranging from daily to annual, and over distances ranging from a few meters to thousands of kilometers....
: they are born in fresh water
Fresh Water

Fresh Water is the debut album by Australian rock and blues singer Alison McCallum, released in 1972. Rare for an Australian artist at the time, it came in a gatefold sleeve....
, migrate to the ocean
Ocean

An ocean is a major body of Seawater, and a principal component of the hydrosphere. Approximately 71% of the Earth's surface is covered by ocean, a World Ocean that is customarily divided into several principal oceans and smaller seas....
, then return to fresh water to reproduce. However, there are rare species that can only survive in fresh water habitats. This is most likely due to the domestication of these certain species of Salmon. Folklore
Folklore

Folklore is the body of expressive culture, including tales, music, dance, legends, oral history, proverbs, jokes, superstitions, customs, and so forth within a particular population comprising the traditions of that culture, subculture, or group ....
 has it that the fish return to the exact spot where they were born to spawn, tracking studies have shown this to be true but the nature of how this memory works has long been debated.

Life cycle

Salmoneggskils
Salmonlarvakils
In Alaska
Alaska

Alaska is the largest U.S. state of the United States by area; it is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait....
, the crossing-over to other streams allows salmon to populate new streams, such as those that emerge as a glacier
Glacier

A glacier is a large, slow-moving mass of ice, formed from compacted layers of snow, that slowly deforms and flows in response to gravity and high pressure....
 retreats. The precise method salmon use to navigate has not been entirely established, though their keen sense of smell is involved. In all species of Pacific salmon, the mature individuals die within a few days or weeks of spawning, a trait known as semelparity. However, even in those species of salmon that may survive to spawn more than once (iteroparity), post-spawning mortality is quite high (perhaps as high as 40 to 50%.)

In order to lay her roe
Roe

Roe or hard roe is the fully ripe internal Ovary or egg masses of fish and certain marine animals, such as shrimp, scallop and sea urchins....
, the female salmon uses her dorsal fin to excavate a shallow depression, called a hole. The hole may sometimes contain 5,000 eggs covering . The eggs usually range from orange to red in color. One or more males will approach the female in her hole, depositing his sperm, or milt, over the roe. The female then covers the eggs by disturbing the gravel at the upstream edge of the depression before moving on to make another redd. The female will make as many as 7 redds before her supply of eggs is exhausted. The salmon will then die within a few days of spawning.

The eggs will hatch into alevin or sac fry. The fry quickly develop into parr with camouflaging vertical stripes. The parr stay for one to three years in their natal stream before becoming smolts which are distinguished by their bright silvery colour with scales that are easily rubbed off. It is estimated that only 10% of all salmon eggs survive long enough to reach this stage. The smolt body chemistry changes, allowing them to live in salt water. Smolts spend a portion of their out-migration time in brackish water, where their body chemistry becomes accustomed to osmoregulation
Osmoregulation

Osmoregulation is the active regulation of the osmotic pressure of bodily fluids to maintain the homeostasis of the body's water content; that is it keeps the body's fluids from becoming too dilute or too concentrated....
 in the ocean.

The salmon spend about one to five years (depending on the species) in the open ocean where they will become sexually mature. The adult salmon returns primarily to its natal stream to spawn. When fish return for the first time they are called whitling in the UK
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
 and grilse or peel in Ireland. Prior to spawning, depending on the species
Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring....
, the salmon undergoes changes. They may grow a hump, develop canine teeth, develop a kype (a pronounced curvature of the jaws in male salmon). All will change from the silvery blue of a fresh run fish from the sea to a darker color. Condition tends to deteriorate the longer the fish remain in freshwater, and they then deteriorate further after they spawn becoming known as kelts. Salmon can make amazing journeys, sometimes moving hundreds of miles upstream against strong currents and rapids to reproduce. Chinook and sockeye salmon from central Idaho, for example, travel over and climb nearly from the Pacific ocean as they return to spawn.

Each year, the fish experiences a period of rapid growth, often in summer, and one of slower growth, normally in winter. This results in rings (annuli) analogous to the growth rings visible in a tree trunk. Freshwater growth shows as densely crowded rings, sea growth as widely spaced rings; spawning is marked by significant erosion as body mass is converted into eggs and milt.

Freshwater streams and estuaries provide important habitat for many salmon species. They feed on terrestrial and aquatic insects
Aquatic insects

Aquatic insects live some portion of their biological life cycle in the water. They feed in the same ways as other insects. Some diving insects, such as Predation diving beetles, can hunt for food underwater where land-living insects cannot Competition....
, amphipods, and other crustaceans while young, and primarily on other fish when older. Eggs are laid in deeper water with larger gravel, and need cool water and good water flow (to supply oxygen) to the developing embryos. Mortality of salmon in the early life stages is usually high due to natural predation and human induced changes in habitat, such as siltation, high water temperatures, low oxygen conditions, loss of stream cover, and reductions in river flow. Estuaries and their associations wetlands provide vital nursery areas for the salmon prior to their departure to the open ocean. Wetlands not only help buffer the estuary from silt and pollutants, but also provide important feeding and hiding areas.

Salmon fisheries

The salmon has long been at the heart of the culture and livelihood of coastal dwellers. Most peoples of the Northern Pacific shore had a ceremony to honor the first return of the year. For many centuries, people caught salmon as they swam upriver to spawn. A famous spearfishing
Spearfishing

Spearfishing is a form of fishing that has been popular throughout the world for centuries. Early civilizations are familiar with the custom of spearing fish out of rivers and streams using sharpened sticks as a means of catching food....
 site on the Columbia River
Columbia River

The Columbia River is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. It is named after the Columbia Rediviva, the first ship from the western world known to have traveled up the river....
 at Celilo Falls
Celilo Falls

Celilo Falls was a tribal fishing area on the Columbia River, just east of the Cascade Range, on what is today the border between the U.S. states of Oregon and Washington....
 was inundated after great dams were built on the river. The Ainu
Ainu people

are an ethnic group indigenous peoples to Hokkaido, the Kuril Islands, and much of Sakhalin. There are most likely over 150,000 Ainu today; however the exact figure is not known as many Ainu hide their origin due to Ethnic issues in Japan....
, of northern Japan
Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
, taught dogs how to catch salmon as they returned to their breeding grounds en masse. Now, salmon are caught in bays and near shore.

Salmon population levels
Population dynamics of fisheries

A fishery is an area with an associated fish or Aquatic animal population which is harvested for its Commercial fishing or Recreational fishing value....
 are of concern in the Atlantic and in some parts of the Pacific but in Alaska
Alaska

Alaska is the largest U.S. state of the United States by area; it is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait....
 stocks are still abundant. Fish farming
Fish farming

Fish farming is the principal form of aquaculture, while other methods may fall under mariculture. It involves raising fish commercially in tanks or enclosures, usually for food....
 of Pacific salmon is outlawed in the United States Exclusive Economic Zone
Exclusive Economic Zone

Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, an Exclusive Economic Zone is a seazone over which a state has special rights over the exploration and use of marine Natural resource....
 , however, there is a substantial network of publicly funded hatcheries
Hatchery

A hatchery is a facility where Egg s are hatched under artificial conditions, especially those of fish or poultry. It may be used for ex-situ conservation purposes, i.e....
, and the State of Alaska's fisheries management
Fisheries management

Fisheries management is today often referred to as a governmental system of management rules based on defined objectives and a mix of management means to implement the rules, which is put in place by a system of Monitoring control and surveillance....
 system is viewed as a leader in the management of wild fish stock
Fish stock

Fish stocks are populations of a particular species of fish, for which intrinsic parameters are the only significant factors in determining population dynamics, while extrinsic factors are considered to be insignificant....
s. Some of the most important Alaska Salmon sustainable wild fisheries
Wild fisheries of the world

A fishery is an area with an associated fish or Aquatic animal population which is harvested for its commercial value. Fisheries can be marine or freshwater....
 are located near the Kenai River
Kenai River

The Kenai River is a river in the Kenai Peninsula of south central Alaska. It runs 132 km westward from Kenai Lake in the Kenai Mountains, through the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge and Skilak Lake to its outlet into the Cook Inlet of the Pacific Ocean near Kenai, Alaska....
, Copper River
Copper River

Copper River may refer to:*Copper River , in the United States.*Copper River , in the United States.*Copper River , a tributary of the Skeena River in Canada....
, and in Bristol Bay
Bristol Bay

Bristol Bay is the eastern-most arm of the Bering Sea, at 57? to 59? North 157? to 162? West. It is located between the southwest part of the Alaska mainland to its north, and the Alaska Peninsula to its south and east....
. In Canada, returning Skeena River
Skeena River

The Skeena River is the second longest river entirely in British Columbia, Canada. The Skeena is an important transportation artery, particularly for the Tsimshian and the Gitxsan - whose names mean "inside the Skeena River" and "people of the Skeena River" respectively, and also during the Omineca Gold Rush when Steamboats of the Skeena Rive...
 wild salmon support commercial, subsistence
Artisan fishing

Artisan fishing is a term sometimes used to describe small scale commercial fishing or subsistence fishing practises. The term particularly applies to coastal or island ethnic groups using traditional Fishing techniques such as Fishing rod and Fishing tackle, Bow fishing and harpoons, Cast net and drag nets, and maybe Coble....
 and recreational fisheries
Recreational fishing

File:Girl with her fish.jpgRecreational fishing, also called sport fishing, is fishing for pleasure or competition. It can be contrasted with commercial fishing, which is fishing for profit, or Artisan fishing, which is fishing for survival....
 as well as the area's diverse wildlife on the coast and around communities hundreds of miles inland in the watershed. The status of wild salmon in Washington is mixed. Out of 435 wild stocks of salmon and steelhead only 187 of them were classified as healthy. 113 had an unknown status, 1 was extinct, 12 were in critical condition and 122 were experiencing depressed populations. The Columbia River salmon population is now less than 3% of what it was when Lewis and Clark
Lewis and Clark Expedition

The Lewis and Clark Expedition , headed by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark , was the first United States overland expedition to the Pacific coast and back....
 arrived at the river. Both Atlantic and Pacific Salmon are popular sportfish.

Salmon as food

Edouard Manet 068
Salmon is a popular food
Food

Food is any substance, usually composed of carbohydrates, fats, proteins and water, that can be Eating or Drinking by an animal or human for nutrition or pleasure....
. Consuming salmon is considered to be healthy due to the fish's high protein
Protein

Proteins are organic compounds made of amino acids arranged in a linear chain and joined together by peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of adjacent amino acid Residue ....
, high Omega-3 fatty acids, and high vitamin D
Vitamin D

Vitamin D is a group of fat-soluble prohormones, the two major forms of which are vitamin D2 and vitamin D3 . The term vitamin D also refers to metabolites and other analogues of these substances....
 content. Salmon is also a source of cholesterol
Cholesterol

Cholesterol is a lipidic, waxy alcohol found in the cell membranes and transported in the blood plasma of all animals. It is an essential component of mammalian cell membranes where it is required to establish proper membrane permeability and membrane fluidity....
, ranging 23–214 mg/100g depending on the species. According to reports in the journal Science
Science (journal)

Science is the academic journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and is considered one of the world's most prestigious scientific journals....
, however, farmed salmon may contain high levels of dioxin
Dioxin

Polychlorinated dibenzodioxins , or simply dioxins, are a group of polyhalogenated compounds which are significant because they act as environmental pollutants....
s. PCB (polychlorinated biphenyl
Polychlorinated biphenyl

Polychlorinated biphenyls are a class of organic compounds with 1 to 10 chlorine atoms attached to biphenyl which is a molecule composed of two benzene rings each containing six carbon atoms....
) levels may be up to eight times higher in farmed salmon than in wild salmon. Omega-3 content may also be lower than in wild caught specimens, and in a different proportion to what is found naturally. Omega 3 comes in three types, ALA
Alpha-linolenic acid

a-Linolenic acid is an organic compound found in many common Vegetable fats and oils. IUPAC nomenclature of organic chemistry, it is named all-cis-9,12,15-octadecatrienoic acid....
, DHA
Docosahexaenoic acid

Docosahexaenoic acid is an omega-3 fatty acid essential fatty acid. In chemical structure, DHA is a carboxylic acid with a 22-carbon chain and hexa Cis-trans isomerism double bonds; the first double bond is located at the third carbon from the omega end....
 and EPA
Eicosapentaenoic acid

Eicosapentaenoic acid is an omega-3 fatty acid. In physiological literature, it is given the name 20:5. It also has the trivial name timnodonic acid....
; wild salmon has traditionally been an important source of DHA and EPA, which are important for brain function and structure, among other things. This means that if the farmed salmon is fed on a meal which is partially grain then the amount of Omega 3 it contains will be present as ALA (alpha-linolenic acid). The body can itself convert ALA Omega 3 into DHA and EPA, but at a very inefficient rate (2–15%). Nonetheless, according to a 2006 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the benefits of eating even farmed salmon still outweigh any risks imposed by contaminants . Type of Omega 3 present may not be a factor for other important health functions. A simple rule of thumb
Rule of thumb

A rule of thumb is a principle with broad application that is not intended to be strictly accurate or reliable for every situation. It is an easily learned and easily applied procedure for approximately calculating or recalling some value, or for making some determination....
 is that the vast majority of Atlantic salmon
Atlantic salmon

Atlantic salmon, known scientifically as Salmo salar, is a species of fish in the family Salmonidae, which is found in the northern Atlantic Ocean and in rivers that flow into the Atlantic and the Pacific....
 available on the world market are farmed (greater than 99%), whereas the majority of Pacific
Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. Its name is derived from the Latin name Mare Pacificum, "peaceful sea", bestowed upon it by the Portugal explorer Ferdinand Magellan....
 salmon are wild-caught (greater than 80%). Farmed Atlantic salmon outnumber wild Atlantic salmon 85 to 1.

Salmon flesh is generally orange to red in colour, although there are some examples of white fleshed wild salmon. The natural colour of salmon results from carotenoid
Carotenoid

Carotenoids are organic compound pigments that are naturally occurring in chromoplasts of plants and some other photosynthesis organisms like algae, some types of fungus and some bacterium....
 pigments, largely astaxanthin
Astaxanthin

Astaxanthin is a carotenoid. It belongs to a larger class of phytochemicals known as terpenes. It is classified as a xanthophyll, which means "yellow leaves"....
 but also canthaxanthin
Canthaxanthin

Canthaxanthin is a carotenoid pigment widely distributed in nature. Carotenoids belong to a larger class of phytochemicals known as terpenoids....
, in the flesh. Wild salmon get these carotenoids from eating krill
Krill

Krill are a type of shrimp-like marine invertebrate animal. These small crustaceans are important organisms of the zooplankton, particularly as food for baleen whales, manta rays, whale sharks, crabeater seals, and other pinniped, and a few seabird species that feed almost exclusively on them....
 and other tiny shellfish
Shellfish

Shellfish is a culinary and fisheries term for exoskeleton bearing aquatic invertebrate used as food, including various species of Molluscas, crustaceans, and echinoderms....
. Because consumers have shown a reluctance to purchase white fleshed salmon, astaxanthin (E161j), and very minutely canthaxanthin (E161g), are added as artificial colorants to the feed of farmed salmon because prepared diets do not naturally contain these pigments. In most cases the astaxanthin is made chemically; alternatively it is extracted from shrimp flour. Another possibility is the use of dried red yeast, which provides the same pigment. However, synthetic mixtures are the least expensive option. Astaxanthin is a potent antioxidant
Antioxidant

An antioxidant is a molecule capable of slowing or preventing the Redox of other molecules. Oxidation is a chemical reaction that transfers electrons from a substance to an oxidizing agent....
 that stimulates the development of healthy fish nervous system
Nervous system

The nervous system is a Neural network of specialized cells that communicate information about an animal's surroundings and itself. It processes this information and causes reactions in other parts of the body....
s and that enhances the fish's fertility and growth rate. Research has revealed canthaxanthin may have negative effects on the human eye, accumulating in the retina at high levels of consumption. Today the concentration of carotenoids (mainly canthaxanthin and astaxanthin) exceeds 8 mg/kg of flesh and all fish producers try to reach a level that represents a value of 16 on the "Roche Color Card", a colour card used to show how pink the fish will appear at specific doses. This scale is specific for measuring the pink colour due to astaxanthin and is not for the orange hue obtained with canthaxanthin. The development of processing and storage operations, which can be detrimental on canthaxanthin flesh concentration, has led to an increased quantity of pigments added to the diet to compensate for the degrading effects of the processing. In wild fish, carotenoid levels of up to 20–25 mg are present, but levels of canthaxanthin are, in contrast, minor.

Canned salmon in the U.S. is usually wild Pacific catch, though some farmed salmon is available in canned form. Smoked salmon
Smoked salmon

Smoked salmon is a preparation of salmon, typically a Fillet that has been curing and then hot or cold smoking . Due to its moderately high price, smoked salmon is considered a delicacy....
 is another popular preparation method, and can either be hot or cold smoked. Lox can refer either to cold smoked salmon or to salmon cured in a brine solution (also called gravlax
Gravlax

Gravlax or gravad lax , gravad laks , gravlaks , graavilohi , graflax is a Scandinavian dish consisting of raw salmon Curing in salt, sugar, and dill....
). Traditional canned salmon includes some skin (which is harmless) and bone (which adds calcium). Skinless and boneless canned salmon is also available.

Raw salmon flesh may contain Anisakis
Anisakis

Anisakis is a genus of parasitic nematodes, which have a life cycle involving fish and marine mammals. They are infective to humans and cause Anisakiasis, and fish which have been infected with Anisakis spp....
 nematode
Nematode

The "roundworms" or "nematodes" are the most diverse phylum of body cavity, and one of the most diverse of all animals. Nematode species are very difficult to distinguish; over 80,000 have been described, of which over 15,000 are parasite....
s, marine parasites that cause Anisakiasis. Before the availability of refrigeration
Refrigeration

Refrigeration is the process of removing heat from an enclosed space, or from a substance, and moving it to a place where it is unobjectionable....
, the Japan
Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
ese did not consume raw salmon. Salmon and salmon roe
Roe

Roe or hard roe is the fully ripe internal Ovary or egg masses of fish and certain marine animals, such as shrimp, scallop and sea urchins....
 have only recently come into use in making sashimi
Sashimi

Sashimi is a Japanese cuisine primarily consisting of very fresh raw seafood, sliced into thin pieces about 2.5cm wide by 4.0cm long by 0.5 cm thick, but dimensions vary depending on the type of item and chef, and served with only a dipping sauce , depending on the fish, and a simple garnish such as perilla and shredded daikon radish....
 (raw fish) and sushi
Sushi

In Japanese cuisine, is vinegared rice, usually topped with other ingredients, including fish dishes. In Japan, sliced raw fish alone is called sashimi and is distinct from sushi, as sashimi is the raw fish component, not the rice component....
.

Environmental pressures

Many wild Salmon stocks have seen a marked decline in recent decades, especially north Atlantic populations which spawn in western European and eastern Canadian waters, and wild salmon of the Snake and Columbia River systems in the Northwest USA. The causes of these declines likely include a number of factors, among them:
  • Disease transfer from open net cage salmon farming, especially sea lice
    Sea lice

    A sea louse is a name applied to several species of marine parasites, including which feeds primarily on salmon....
    . The European Commission (2002) concluded “The reduction of wild salmonid abundance is also linked to other factors but there is more and more scientific evidence establishing a direct link between the number of lice-infested wild fish and the presence of cages in the same estuary.” It is reported that wild salmon on the west coast of Canada are being driven to extinction
    Extinction

    In biology and ecology, extinction is the death of every member of a species or group of taxon. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of that species ....
     by sea lice
    Sea lice

    A sea louse is a name applied to several species of marine parasites, including which feeds primarily on salmon....
     from nearby salmon farms.
  • For Atlantic salmon smolts, it takes as few as eight sea lice to kill the fish. On the Pacific Coast where the smolt are much smaller, only one or two are needed. In the Atlantic, sea lice have been a proven factor in both Norwegian and Scottish salmon. In the Western Atlantic there has been little research at sea, but sea lice numbers in the period post-2000 do not appear to be a significant factor in the critical decline of endangered inner Bay of Fundy salmon. The situation may have been different in the 1980s and 1990s, but we are unlikely ever to know the true facts on that.
  • Overfishing in general but especially commercial netting in the Faroes and Greenland
    Greenland

    Greenland is a member country of the Kingdom of Denmark located between the Arctic Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago....
    .
  • Ocean and river warming which can delay spawning and accelerate transition to smolting.
  • Ulcerative dermal necrosis
    Ulcerative dermal necrosis

    Ulcerative dermal necrosis is a chronic dermatological disease of cold water salmonid fish that had a severe impact on north Atlantic Salmon and Brown trout stocks in the late 1960s, the 1970s and 1980....
     (UDN) infections of the 1970s and 1980s which severely affected adult salmon in freshwater rivers.
  • Loss of suitable freshwater habitat, especially degradation of stream pool
    Stream pool

    A stream pool, in hydrology, is a stretch of a river or stream in which the water depth is above average and the stream velocity is quite low. Such pools can be important for juvenile fish habitat, especially where many stream reaches attain high summer temperatures and very low flow dry season characteristics....
    s and reduction of suitable material for the excavation of redds. Historically stream pools were, to a large extent, created by beavers. With the extirpation of the beaver
    Beaver

    Beavers are two primarily nocturnal, semi-aquatic species of rodent, one native to North America and one to Eurasia. They are known for building dams, canals, and lodges ....
    , the nurturing function of these ponds was lost.
  • Reduction of the retention of the nutrients brought by the returning adult salmon in stream pools. Without stream pools, dead adult salmon tend to be washed straight back down the streams and rivers.
  • The construction of dams, weirs, barriers and other "flood prevention" measures, which bring severe adverse impacts to river habitat and on the accessibility of those habitats to salmon. This is particularly true in the northwest USA, where large numbers of dams have been built in many river systems, including over 400 in the Columbia River Basin.
  • Other environmental factors such as light intensity, water flow, or change in temperature dramatically affects salmon during their migration season.
  • Loss of invertebrate diversity and population density in rivers because of modern farm
    Farm

    A farm is an area of land, including various structures, devoted primarily to the practice of producing and managing food , fibers and, increasingly, fuel....
    ing methods and various sources of pollution
    Pollution

    Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into an environment that causes instability, disorder, harm or discomfort to the ecosystem i.e. physical systems or living organisms ....
    , thus reducing food availability.
  • Reduction in freshwater base flow in rivers and disruption of seasonal flows, because of diversions and extractions, hydroelectric power
    Hydroelectricity

    Hydroelectricity is electricity generated by hydropower, i.e., the production of power through use of the gravitational force of falling or flowing water....
     generation, irrigation
    Irrigation

    Irrigation is an artificial application of water to the soil usually for assisting in growing crops. In crop production it is mainly used in dry areas and in periods of rainfall shortfalls, but also to protect plants against frost....
     schemes, barge
    Barge

    A barge is a flat-bottomed boat, built mainly for river and canal transport of heavy goods. Most barges are not self-propelled and need to be towed by tugboats or pushed by towboats....
     transportation, and slackwater reservoirs, which inhibit normal migratory processes and increase predation for salmon.
  • Loss of suitable low gradient stream habitats due to agricultural practices such as the removal of riparian plants, destabilization of stream banks by livestock and irrigation processes.


There are efforts to relieve this situation. As such, several governments and NGOs are sharing in research and habitat restoration efforts.
  • In the western Atlantic, the Atlantic Salmon Federation has developed a major sonic tracking technology program to understand the high at-sea mortality since the early 1990s. Ocean arrays are deployed across the Baie des Chaleurs and between Newfoundland and Labrador at the Strait of Belle Isle
    Strait of Belle Isle

    The Strait of Belle Isle , sometimes referred to as Straits of Belle Isle or Labrador Straits) is a waterway in eastern Canada that separates the Labrador Peninsula from the island of Newfoundland , in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador....
    . Salmon have now been tracked half way from rivers like the Restigouche to Greenland feeding grounds. Now the first line of the Ocean Tracking Network initiative is installed by DFO and Dalhousie University of Halifax from Halifax to the edge of the continental shelf. First results include Atlantic salmon travelling from the Penobscot River in Maine, the "anchor river" for US Atlantic salmon populations.


Results overall are showing that estuary problems exist for some rivers, but issues involving feeding grounds at sea are impacting populations as well. In 2008 returns were markedly improved for Atlantic salmon on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, but no one knows if this is a temporary improvement or sign of a trend.
  • NOAA's Office of Protected Resources maintains a , the Endangered Species Act
    Endangered Species Act

    The Endangered Species Act of 1973 or ESA is the most wide-ranging of the dozens of United States environmental laws passed in the 1970s....
  • Sweden
    Sweden

    Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic countries on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden has land borders with Norway to the west and Finland to the northeast, and it is connected to Denmark by the ?resund Bridge in the south....
     has generated a protection program as part of its Biodiversity Action Plan
    Biodiversity Action Plan

    This article is about a conservation biology topic. For other uses of BAP, see BAP .A 'Biodiversity Action Plan' is an internationally recognized program addressing threatened species and habitats and is designed to protect and restore biological systems....
  • maintains an IUCN redlist of
  • The Kamchatka Peninsula
    Kamchatka Peninsula

    The Kamchatka Peninsula is a 1,250-kilometer long peninsula in the Russian Far East, with an area of 472,300 km?. It lies between the Pacific Ocean to the east and the Sea of Okhotsk to the west....
    , in the Russian Far East
    Russian Far East

    Russian Far East is a term that refers to the Russian part of the Far East, i.e., extreme east parts of Russia, between Siberia and the Pacific Ocean....
    , contains the world's greatest salmon sanctuary.
  • Bear Lake
    Bear Lake (Alaska)

    Bear Lake is near the town of Seward, Alaska and Resurrection Bay, in the Kenai Peninsula Borough, Alaska on the Kenai Peninsula in the United States state of Alaska....
    , Alaska
    Alaska

    Alaska is the largest U.S. state of the United States by area; it is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait....
    , is the site of salmon enhancement activities since 1962.


Salmon and beavers

Beavers' ponds may provide critical habitat for juvenile salmon. An example of this was seen in the years following 1818 in the Columbia River Basin. In 1818, the British government made an agreement with the U.S. government to allow U.S. citizens access to the Columbia catchment (see Treaty of 1818
Treaty of 1818

The Convention respecting fisheries, boundary, and the restoration of slaves between the United States and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, also known as the London Convention, Anglo-American Convention of 1818, Convention of 1818, or simply the Treaty of 1818, was a treaty signed in 1818 between the...
). At the time, the Hudson's Bay Company
Hudson's Bay Company

The Hudson's Bay Company , abbreviated HBC, is the oldest commercial corporation in North America and is one of the oldest in the world. The company was incorporated by British royal charter in 1670 as The Governor and Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson's Bay; it is now domiciled in Canada and has adopted the mo...
  sent word to trappers to extirpate all furbearers from the area in an effort to make the area less attractive. In response to the elimination of beavers from large parts of the river system, salmon runs plummeted, even in the absence of many of the factors usually associated with the demise of salmon runs. Salmon recruitment can be affected by beavers' dams because dams can:
  • Slow the rate at which nutrients are flushed from the system; nutrients provided by adult salmon dying throughout the fall and winter remain available in the spring to newly-hatched juveniles
  • Provide deeper water pools where young salmon can avoid avian predators
  • Increase productivity through photosynthesis and by enhancing the conversion efficiency of the cellulose-powered detritus cycle
  • Create low-energy environments where juvenile salmon put the food they ingest into growth rather than into fighting currents
  • Increase structural complexity with many physical niches where salmon can avoid predators


Beavers' dams are able to nurture salmon juveniles in Estuarine tidal marshes where the salinity is less than 10ppm. Beavers build small dams of generally less than high in channels in the Myrtle zone. These dams can be overtopped at high tide and hold water at low tide. This provides refuges for juvenile salmon so they don't have to swim into large channels where they are subject to predation.

Aquaculture

Salmon Newborn
Salmon aquaculture
Aquaculture

Aquaculture is the farming of freshwater and saltwater organisms including molluscs, crustaceans and aquatic plants. Unlike fishing, aquaculture, also known as aquafarming, implies the cultivation of aquatic populations under controlled conditions....
 is the major economic contributor to the world production of farmed fin-fish, representing over $1 billion US annually. Other commonly cultured fish species include: tilapia
Tilapia

'Tilapia' is the Common name#Biological common names for nearly a hundred species of cichlid fish from the tilapiine cichlid tribe . Tilapias inhabit a variety of fresh water and, less commonly, brackish water habitats from shallow streams and ponds through to rivers, lakes, and estuaries....
, catfish
Catfish

Catfish are a very diverse group of Actinopterygii fish. Named for their prominent barbel s, which resemble a cat's whiskers , catfish range in size and behavior from the heaviest, the Pangasius gigas from Southeast Asia and the longest, the wels catfish of Eurasia, to detritivores , and even to a tiny parasite species commonly called the ca...
, sea bass
Sea bass

Sea bass refers to many fish species of various families, including:* Black sea bass , whose range is the eastern coast of the United States* White seabass , along the Pacific coast of the United States...
, carp
Carp

Carp is a common name for various freshwater fish of the family Cyprinidae, a very large group of fish originally from Eurasia and southeast Asia....
, bream
Bream

Bream is a general term for a number of species of freshwater and ocean fish belonging to a variety of genus including: Abramis ; Acanthopagrus; Argyrops; Blicca; Brama; Etelis; Lepomis; Gymnocranius; Lethrinus; Nemipterus; Rhabdosargus and Scolopsis....
, and trout
Trout

Trout are a number of species of freshwater fish belonging to the Salmoninae subfamily of the Salmonidae family. Salmon belong to some of the same genera as trout but, unlike most trout, most salmon species spend almost all their lives in salt water....
. Salmon farming is very big in Chile
Chile

Chile, officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long and narrow coastal strip wedged between the Andes mountains and the Pacific Ocean....
, Norway
Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a constitutional monarchy in Northern Europe that occupies the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula....
, Scotland
Scotland

conventional_long_name = ScotlandAlba|common_name= Scotland|image_flag = Flag of Scotland.svg|flag_width = 130px...
, Canada
Canada

Canada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean....
 and the Faroe Islands, and is the source for most salmon consumed in America and Europe. Atlantic salmon are also, in very small volumes, farmed in Russia
Russia

Russia , or the Russian Federation , is a list of countries spanning more than one continent country extending over much of northern Eurasia....
 and the island of Tasmania
Tasmania

Tasmania is an Australian island and States and territories of Australia of the same name. It is located south of the eastern side of the continent, being separated from it by Bass Strait....
, Australia
Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
.

Salmon are carnivorous and are currently fed a meal produced from catching other wild fish and other marine organisms. Consequently, as the number of farmed salmon increase, so does the demand for other fish to feed the salmon. Work continues on substituting vegetable protein
Protein

Proteins are organic compounds made of amino acids arranged in a linear chain and joined together by peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of adjacent amino acid Residue ....
s for animal proteins in the salmon diet. Unfortunately though, this substitution results in lower levels of the highly valued Omega-3 content in the farmed product. Intensive salmon farming now uses open net cages which have low production costs but have the drawback of allowing disease and sea lice
Sea lice

A sea louse is a name applied to several species of marine parasites, including which feeds primarily on salmon....
 to spread to local wild salmon stocks.

On a dry-dry basis, it takes 2-4 kg of wild caught fish to produce one kg of salmon.

Another form of salmon production, which is safer but less controllable, is to raise salmon in hatcheries
Hatchery

A hatchery is a facility where Egg s are hatched under artificial conditions, especially those of fish or poultry. It may be used for ex-situ conservation purposes, i.e....
 until they are old enough to become independent. They are then released into rivers, often in an attempt to increase the salmon population. This practice was very common in countries like Sweden
Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic countries on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden has land borders with Norway to the west and Finland to the northeast, and it is connected to Denmark by the ?resund Bridge in the south....
 before the Norwegians developed salmon farming, but is seldom done by private companies, as anyone may catch the salmon when they return to spawn, limiting a company's chances of benefiting financially from their investment. Because of this, the method has mainly been used by various public authorities and non profit groups like the Cook Inlet Aquaculture Association
Cook Inlet Aquaculture Association

The Cook Inlet Aquaculture Association or CIAA is an non-profit organization based in Kenai, Alaska, Alaska that works to create sustainable salmon stocks in the Cook Inlet area....
 as a way of artificially increasing salmon populations in situations where they have declined due to overharvest, construction of dams, and habitat destruction or disruption. Unfortunately, there can be negative consequences to this sort of population manipulation, including genetic "dilution" of the wild stocks, and many jurisdictions are now beginning to discourage supplemental fish planting in favour of harvest controls and habitat improvement and protection. A variant method of fish stocking, called ocean ranching, is under development in Alaska
Alaska

Alaska is the largest U.S. state of the United States by area; it is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait....
. There, the young salmon are released into the ocean far from any wild salmon streams. When it is time for them to spawn, they return to where they were released where fishermen can then catch them.

An alternative method to hatcheries is to use spawning channels. These are artificial streams, usually parallel to an existing stream with concrete or rip-rap sides and gravel bottoms. Water from the adjacent stream is piped into the top of the channel, sometimes via a header pond to settle out sediment. Spawning success is often much better in channels than in adjacent streams due to the control of floods which in some years can wash out the natural redds. Because of the lack of floods, spawning channels must sometimes be cleaned out to remove accumulated sediment. The same floods which destroy natural redds also clean them out. Spawning channels preserve the natural selection of natural streams as there is no temptation, as in hatcheries, to use prophylactic chemicals to control diseases.

Farm raised salmon are fed the carotenoid
Carotenoid

Carotenoids are organic compound pigments that are naturally occurring in chromoplasts of plants and some other photosynthesis organisms like algae, some types of fungus and some bacterium....
s astaxanthin
Astaxanthin

Astaxanthin is a carotenoid. It belongs to a larger class of phytochemicals known as terpenes. It is classified as a xanthophyll, which means "yellow leaves"....
 and canthaxanthin
Canthaxanthin

Canthaxanthin is a carotenoid pigment widely distributed in nature. Carotenoids belong to a larger class of phytochemicals known as terpenoids....
, so that their flesh color matches wild salmon.

Diseases and parasites affecting wild salmon

According to Canadian biologist Dorothy Kieser, protozoan parasite Henneguya salminicola is commonly found in the flesh of salmonids. It has been recorded in the field samples of salmon returning to Queen Charlotte Island The fish responds by walling off the parasitic infection into a number of cysts that contain milky fluid. This fluid is an accumulation of a large number of parasites.

Henneguya and other parasites in the myxosporean group have a complex lifecycle where the salmon is one of two hosts. The fish releases the spores after spawning. In the Henneguya case, the spores enter a second host, most likely an invertebrate, in the spawning stream. When juvenile salmon out-migrate to the Pacific Ocean, the second host releases a stage infective to salmon. The parasite is then carried in the salmon until the next spawning cycle. The myxosporean parasite that causes whirling disease in trout, has a similar lifecycle. However, as opposed to whirling disease, the Henneguya infestation does not appear to cause disease in the host salmon — even heavily infected fish tend to return to spawn successfully.

According to Dr. Kieser, a big lot of work on Henneguya salminicola was done by scientists at the Pacific Biological Station in Nanaimo in the mid-1980, in particular, an overview report which states that "the fish that have the longest fresh water residence time as juveniles have the most noticeable infections. Hence in order of prevalence coho are most infected followed by sockeye, chinook, chum and pink." As well, the report says that, at the time the studies were conducted, stocks from the middle and upper reaches of large river systems in British Columbia such as Fraser, Skeena, Nass and from mainland coastal streams in the southern half of B.C. "are more likely to have a low prevalence of infection." The report also states "It should be stressed that Henneguya, economically deleterious though it is, is harmless from the view of public health. It is strictly a fish parasite that cannot live in or affect warm blooded animals, including man".

According to Klaus Schallie, Molluscan Shellfish Program Specialist with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, "Henneguya salminicola is found in southern B.C. also and in all species of salmon. I have previously examined smoked chum salmon sides that were riddled with cysts and some sockeye runs in Barkley Sound (southern B.C., west coast of Vancouver Island) are noted for their high incidence of infestation."

As noted above, the Lepeophtheirus salmonis, a sea louse, causes deadly infestations of farm-grown and wild salmon. On the Pacific coast of Canada, the louse-induced mortality of pink salmon is commonly over 80%.

Species

Atlantischer Lachs
The various species of salmon have many names, and varying behaviors.

Atlantic Ocean species

Atlantic ocean species belong to the genus Salmo
Salmo

'Salmo' is a genus of fish in the salmon family that includes many familiar species of salmon and trout. The type species is the Atlantic salmon, S....
. They include,
  • Atlantic salmon
    Atlantic salmon

    Atlantic salmon, known scientifically as Salmo salar, is a species of fish in the family Salmonidae, which is found in the northern Atlantic Ocean and in rivers that flow into the Atlantic and the Pacific....
     or Salmon (Salmo salar), was the first salmon to be classified.


Pacific Ocean species

Pacific species belong to the genus Oncorhynchus
Oncorhynchus

Oncorhynchus is a genus of in the family Salmonidae; it contains the Pacific salmons and Pacific trouts. The name of the genus is derived from the Greek language onkos and rynchos , in reference to the "kype" - the hooked jaw of males in mating season....
, some examples include;
  • Cherry salmon (Oncorhynchus masu or O. masou) is found only in the western Pacific Ocean in Japan, Korea and Russia and also landlocked in central Taiwan's Chi Chia Wan Stream.
  • Chinook salmon
    Chinook salmon

    The Chinook salmon, Oncorhynchus tshawytscha, , is a species of anadromous fish in the salmon family . It is a Pacific Ocean salmon and is variously known as the king salmon, tyee salmon, Columbia River salmon, black salmon, chub salmon, hook bill salmon, winter salmon, Spring Salmon, ...
     (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) is also known in the USA as King or Blackmouth Salmon, and as Spring Salmon in British Columbia. Chinook are the largest of all Pacific salmon, frequently exceeding .The name Tyee is used in British Columbia to refer to Chinook over 30 pounds. Chinook salmon are known to range as far north as the Mackenzie River and Kugluktuk in the central Canadian arctic .
  • Chum salmon
    Chum salmon

    The chum salmon, Oncorhynchus keta, is a species of anadromous fish in the salmon family . It is a Pacific salmon, may also be known as dog salmon or Keta salmon, and is often marketed under the name Silverbrite salmon....
     (Oncorhynchus keta) is known as Dog, Keta, or Calico salmon in some parts of the USA. This species has the widest geographic range of the Pacific species: south to the Sacramento River
    Sacramento River

    The Sacramento River is the longest river entirely within the United States state of California. Starting at the confluence of the South Fork and Middle Fork Sacramento River, near Mount Shasta in the Cascade Range, the Sacramento flows south for , through the northern California Central Valley, between the Pacific Coast Range and the Sierr...
     in California in the eastern Pacific and the island of Kyushu
    Kyushu

    or Kyushu is the third-largest island of Japan and most southwesterly of its Japanese Archipelago. Its alternate ancient names include Kyukoku , Chinzei , and Tsukushi-no-shima ....
     in the Sea of Japan
    Sea of Japan

    The Sea of Japan is a marginal sea of the western Pacific Ocean, bordered by Japan, South Korea, North Korea and Russia. It is referred to in North Korea as the Korea East Sea and in South Korea as the East Sea....
     in the western Pacific; north to the Mackenzie River
    Mackenzie River

    The Mackenzie River originates in Great Slave Lake, in the Northwest Territories, and flows north into the Arctic Ocean. It is the longest river in Canada at 1,738 km and, together with its headstreams the Peace River and the Finlay River, the second longest river in North America at 4,241 km in length....
     in Canada in the east and to the Lena River
    Lena River

    The Lena is the easternmost of the three great Siberian rivers that flow into the Arctic Ocean: the Ob River, the Yenisei River and the Lena. It is the 10th longest river in the world and has the 9th largest drainage basin....
     in Siberia in the west.
  • Coho salmon
    Coho salmon

    The Coho salmon, Oncorhynchus kisutch, is a species of anadromous fish in the salmon family . Coho salmon are also known as silver salmon or "silvers"....
     (Oncorhynchus kisutch) is also known in the USA as Silver salmon. This species is found throughout the coastal waters of Alaska and British Columbia and up most clear-running streams and rivers. It is also now known to occur, albeit infrequently, in the Mackenzie River.
  • Pink salmon
    Pink salmon

    Pink salmon or humpback salmon, Oncorhynchus gorbuscha, is a species of Fish migration fish in the Salmonidae family . It is the smallest and most abundant of the Oncorhynchus....
     (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha), known as humpies in south east Alaska, are found from northern California and Korea
    Korea

    Korea is a geographic area composed of two sovereign countries, a civilization, and a former state situated on the Korean Peninsula in East Asia....
    , throughout the northern Pacific, and from the Mackenzie River
    Mackenzie River

    The Mackenzie River originates in Great Slave Lake, in the Northwest Territories, and flows north into the Arctic Ocean. It is the longest river in Canada at 1,738 km and, together with its headstreams the Peace River and the Finlay River, the second longest river in North America at 4,241 km in length....
     in Canada to the Lena River
    Lena River

    The Lena is the easternmost of the three great Siberian rivers that flow into the Arctic Ocean: the Ob River, the Yenisei River and the Lena. It is the 10th longest river in the world and has the 9th largest drainage basin....
     in Siberia, usually in shorter coastal streams. It is the smallest of the Pacific species, with an average weight of to .
  • Sockeye salmon
    Sockeye salmon

    Sockeye salmon , also called red salmon or blueback salmon, is an anadromous species of salmon found in the Pacific Ocean. The same species when it occurs in landlocked bodies of water is called the Kokanee....
     (Oncorhynchus nerka) is also known in the USA as Red salmon. This lake-rearing species is found south as far as the Klamath River
    Klamath River

    The Klamath River , approximately long, is a major river in southern Oregon and northern California in the United States. It drains an arid farming valley in its upper reaches, passing swiftly through the mountains in its lower reaches before emptying into the Pacific Ocean....
     in California
    California

    California is a U.S. state on the West Coast of the United States of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. It is bordered by Oregon to the north, Nevada to the east, Arizona to the southeast, and to the south the Mexico state of Baja California....
     in the eastern Pacific and northern Hokkaido Island
    Hokkaido

    , formerly known as Ezo, Yezo, Yeso, or Yesso, is Japan's second largest island and the largest, northernmost of its 47 prefectures of Japan....
     in Japan
    Japan

    Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
     in the western Pacific and as far north as Bathurst Inlet
    Bathurst Inlet

    Bathurst Inlet is a deep inlet located along the northern coast of the Canada mainland, into which the Burnside River and Western Rivers empty....
     in the Canadian Arctic in the east and the Anadyr River
    Anadyr River

    Anadyr is a river in the extreme northeast of Siberia, Russia.The river rises in the Anadyr Range, about 67?N latitude and 173?E longitude, flows through Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, at first southwest and then east, and enters the Gulf of Anadyr of the Bering Sea after a course of about 800 kilometres ....
     in Siberia
    Siberia

    Siberia , is the name given to the vast region constituting almost all of North Asia and for the most part currently serving as the massive central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, having served in the same capacity previously for the Soviet Union from its beginning, and the Russian Empire beginning in the 16th century....
     in the west. Although most adult Pacific salmon feed on small fish, shrimp and squid; sockeye feed on plankton
    Plankton

    Plankton consist of any drifting organisms that inhabit the pelagic zone of oceans, seas, or bodies of fresh water. Plankton are defined by their ecological niche rather than their Phylogenetics or taxonomy classification....
     that they filter through gill rakers.


True Salmon

Steelhead are true salmon belonging to the taxonomic family Salmonidae. All modern books list it as being such. There is much confusion on this, and many books do not state this clearly.

  • Steelhead or Steelhead trout (Oncorhychus mykiss) are river spawners, usually found in the same rivers that produce chinook, especially the Columbia, Snake, Skeena, and other large rivers on the Pacific Coast of North America. Steelhead have also been introduced into some rivers surrounding the Laurentian Great Lakes
    Great Lakes

    The St. Lawrence River Great Lakes are a chain of fresh water lakes located in eastern North America, on the Canada ? United States border. Consisting of Lakes Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, Lake Erie, and Lake Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth....
    .


Other species

  • Land-locked salmon (Salmo salar sebago) live in a number of lakes in eastern North America. This subspecies
    Subspecies

    In biology, subspecies is the taxonomic rank immediately subordinate to a species. A subspecies is a taxonomic group which is less distinct than the Common descent or species from which it originates....
     of Atlantic Salmon is non-migratory, even when access to the sea is not barred.
  • Kokanee salmon is a land-locked form of sockeye salmon.
  • Huchen
    Huchen

    The huchen or Danube salmon is a species of freshwater fish in the salmon family of order Salmoniformes. It is the type species of its genus....
     or Danube salmon (Hucho hucho), the largest permanent fresh water salmonid


Salmon in mythology

In Irish mythology
Irish mythology

The mythology of pre-Christian Ireland did not entirely survive the conversion to Christianity, but much of it was preserved, shorn of its religious meanings, in medieval Irish literature, which represents the most extensive and best preserved of all the branches of Celtic mythology....
, the hero Fionn mac Cumhaill
Fionn mac Cumhaill

Fionn mac Cumhaill was a mythical hunter-warrior of Irish mythology, occurring also in the mythologies of Scotland and the Isle of Man. The stories of Fionn and his followers, the Fianna, form the Fenian cycle or Fiannaidheacht,much of it supposedly narrated by Fionn's son, the poet Ois?n....
, leader of the Fianna
Fianna

In early Ireland, fianna were small, semi-independent warrior bands who lived apart from society in the forests as mercenaries, bandits and hunters, but could be called upon by kings in times of war....
, gained powers of perception from a salmon. The young Fionn met the poet Finegas near the river Boyne
Boyne

Several terms incorporating the word "Boyne" include:* River Boyne, a river in Ireland* Boyne River , three rivers in Ontario, but discussed in the same article...
 and studied under him. Finegas had spent seven years trying to catch the salmon of knowledge
Salmon of Wisdom

The Salmon of Wisdom or Salmon of Knowledge is a creature figuring in the Fenian Cycle of Irish mythology. It appears in The Boyhood Deeds of Fionn, which recounts the early adventures of Fionn mac Cumhaill....
 which lived in a pool on the Boyne, for whoever ate the salmon would gain all the knowledge in the world. Eventually he caught it and told the boy to cook it for him. While cooking it Fionn burst a blister on the salmon's skin, burning his thumb, and instinctively put his thumb in his mouth, swallowing a piece of the salmon's skin. This imbued him with the salmon's wisdom.

The salmon is also one of the incarnations of both Tuan mac Cairill
Tuan mac Cairill

In Irish mythology Tuan mac Cairill was a follower of Partholon who alone survived the plague that killed the rest of his people. Through a series of animal transformations he survived into Christian times, and told the story of his people to Finnian of Moville....
 and Fintan mac Bóchra.

In Welsh mythology
Welsh mythology

Welsh mythology, the remnants of the mythology of the pre-Christian Britons , has come down to us in much altered form in Medieval Welsh literature such as the Red Book of Hergest, the White Book of Rhydderch, the Book of Aneirin and the Book of Taliesin....
, the salmon of Llyn Llyw is the oldest animal in the world. King Arthur and his knights are charged with finding Mabon ap Modron
Mabon ap Modron

In Welsh mythology, Mabon was the son of Modron . His name is cognate with the theonym Maponos, probably equivalent to the Irish god Aengus. He was a hunter god who was stolen from his mother three days after his birth....
, and consult several animals—an ousel, a stag
STAG

STAG: A Test of Love is a reality television television program, hosted by Tommy Habeeb. Each episode profiles an engaged couple a week or two before their wedding....
, an owl and an eagle—before finding the salmon, who lets Cai
Cai

Cai can refer to:*Cai , a common Chinese surname*Cai , a state in ancient China* Cai, the Welsh language spelling of Arthurian legend Sir Kay...
 and Bedwyr
Bedwyr

Bedwyr may refer to:* Bedwyr Bedrydant, a Knight of the Round Table in Arthurean legend* Bedwyr Lewis Jones , Welsh scholar, literary critic and linguist...
 ride its back to the walls of Mabon's prison in Gloucester.

In Norse mythology
Norse mythology

Norse, Viking or Scandinavian mythology comprises the beliefs, myths and legends of the Norse paganism of the North Germanic language people, including those who settled on Faroe Islands and Iceland, where most of the written sources for Norse mythology were assembled....
, after Loki
Loki

File:Loke og Sigyn by Eckersberg.jpgIn Norse mythology, Loki is a ?ss or j?tunn . Loki's relation with the gods varies by source. Loki assists the gods, and sometimes causes problems for them....
 tricked the blind god Höðr
Höðr

H??r is the brother of Baldr in Norse mythology. Guided by Loki he shot the mistletoe missile which was to slay the otherwise invulnerable Baldr....
 into killing his brother Baldr, Loki jumped into a river and transformed himself into a salmon in order to escape punishment from the other gods
Æsir

In Old Norse, ?ss is the term denoting a member of the principal groups of gods of the List of Norse gods of Norse paganism. They include many of the major figures, such as Odin, Frigg, Thor, Baldr and Tyr....
. When they held out a net to trap him he attempted to leap over it but was caught by Thor
Thor

Thor is the red-haired and bearded god of thunder in Germanic mythology and Germanic paganism, and its subsets: Norse paganism, Anglo-Saxon paganism and Continental Germanic mythology....
 who grabbed him by the tail with his hand, and this is why the salmon's tail is tapered.

Salmon are central to Native American mythology
Native American mythology

Although a section on Mythology is no substitute for a section on Native American Religion, Native American belief systems include many sacred narratives....
 on the Pacific coast, from the Haida
Haida

The Haida are an Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America. The Haida territories comprise the archipelago of the Queen Charlotte Islands, known in the Haida language as Haida Gwaii , and the southern half of Prince of Wales Island in the southernmost Alaska Panhandle, which is the home of a subgroup called the '...
 to the Nootka
Nootka

Nootka may refer to:* The Nuu-chah-nulth indigenous peoples and their Nuu-chah-nulth language.* The place called Nootka Sound.* The island known as Nootka Island....
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External links

  • An unbiased collaboration on the outlook for wild pacific salmon
  • A collection of documents describing salmon of the Pacific Northwest.
  • , Kevin Ho, Columbia University, 2005.
  • a non-profit union of over 50 organizations and 6 million members working to restore wild salmon in the Pacific NW, especially the Columbia/Snake basins.
  • A salmon sustainability and awareness effort
  • A registered non-profit for sustainable development of salmon habitat in the Pacific Northwest.
  • A movement to create a bioregional community, based on the historic spawning area of Pacific salmon (CA to AK).
  • by Linda Joyce Forristal, worldandi.com, 2003 - Salmon specific.
  • by Judith E. Foulke, FDA Consumer, September 1993 - General talk on consumer fraud in the fish industry, with a section on salmon coloring.
  • online book


Further reading

  • Atlas of Pacific Salmon, Xanthippe Augerot and the State of the Salmon Consortium, University of California Press, 2005, hardcover, 152 pages, ISBN 0-520-24504-0
  • Making Salmon: An Environmental History of the Northwest Fisheries Crisis, Joseph E. Taylor III, University of Washington Press, 1999, 488 pages, ISBN 0-295-98114-8
  • Trout and Salmon of North America, Robert J. Behnke, Illustrated by Joseph R. Tomelleri, The Free Press, 2002, hardcover, 359 pages, ISBN 0-7432-2220-2
  • Come back, salmon, By Molly Cone, Sierra Club Books, 48 pages, ISBN 0-87156-572-2 - A book for juveniles describes the restoration of 'Pigeon Creek'.
  • The salmon: their fight for survival, By Anthony Netboy, 1973, Houghton Mifflin Co., 613 pages, ISBN 0-395-14013-7
  • A River Lost, by Blaine Harden, 1996, WW Norton Co., 255 pages, ISBN 0-393-31690-4. (Historical view of the Columbia River system).
  • River of Life, Channel of Death, by Keith C. Peterson, 1995, Confluence Press, 306 pages, ISBN 978-0870714962. (Fish and dams on the Lower Snake river.)
  • Salmon, by Dr Peter Coates, 2006, ISBN 1861892950
  • Hosted by .
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  • The Salmons Tale one of the twelve Ionan Tales by Jim MacCool