Fun Facts about Salmon
Fun Facts about Salmon
2. Salmon and steelhead migrate out in the open Pacific Ocean. Do you have a guess as to how far away they go? Some stay close to home while others may go as far away as Japan before turning around and coming back to the river where they were born.
3. Salmon and steelhead are among only a few creatures on earth that are "anadromous" What does this mean? They live part of their life in freshwater and part of their life in saltwater. Because fish get oxygen out of the water they swim through, this means that their entire bodies have to make a drastic metabolic change not once but twice when going from fresh to saltwater then saltwater to freshwater.
4. Salmon and steelhead that are born in freshwater spend time in rivers and streams as little fish eating bugs that allow them to grow larger. After spawning the salmon die and are eaten by bugs , closing a loop in the food chain.
5. Chum salmon are also named Dog salmon because the Inuit and Eskimo people will catch them, let them freeze and then feed them to their dogs during the winter months when it is tough to find other sources of food. Male chum also develop large dog-like “fangs” which is another reason they are called dog salmon.
6. Not long ago salmon and steelhead used to live in rivers up and down the west coast, going as far south as the Baja Peninsula. Today their range does not extend nearly as far south as it once did.
7. Salmon find their home waters by sense of smell which is even more keen than a dog or bear. They also rely on ocean currents, tides and the gravitational pull of the moon to navigate their way through the ocean back to the stream or river where they were born.
Atlantic Salmon
8. Lives to be 11 years old.
9. Grows to be 50-100 centimetres ... or even longer.
10, Changes colour depending on the water it is in.
11. The young fish are silver in colour when they leave for the ocean.
12. In fresh water, the adult fish becomes bronze or brown.
13. Scientists can ‘read’ the salmon’s story in its scales.
14. The scales tell how old the fish is. They tell how many years it has been in fresh water… And how many years it has spent at sea.
15. Good at ‘high jumps’. It can leap almost four metres in the air.
16. A great traveller. It can swim across the ocean… and back again.
17. Has a long history. It was protected by law in 1215. (The Magna Carta)
18. People come to New Brunswick from all over the world to catch this mighty fish.
19. Lives in our larger rivers- like the Restigouche, Miramichi and Saint John.
20. Returns to the river that it was born in to lay its eggs.
21. In the fall, the mother digs a nest (or red) deep in the river bottom.
22. She lays at least 3 000 eggs. (700 eggs per pound of her own weight)
23. Each egg is about 5-7 millimetres in size.
24. The mother then buries the eggs with gravel. River water flows through the nest. This keeps the eggs clean and cool.
25. The eggs hatch in spring. The young fish stays buried in gravel for up to five weeks.
26. The young fish is about 2.5 centimetres long when it leaves the nest.
27. Try some smoked salmon. Yummy!
28. Large ocean fish, seals and sharks like to eat them too.
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