Pacific salmon are an important biological and economic resource of countries of the North Pacific rim. They are also a unique group of fish possessing unusually complex life histories. There are seven species of Pacific salmon, five occurring on both the North American and Asian continents (sockeye, pink, chum, chinook, and coho) and two (masu and amago) only in Asia. The life cycle of the Pacific salmon begins in the autumn when the adult female deposits eggs that are fertilized in gravel beds in rivers or lakes. The young emerge from the gravel the following spring and will either migrate immediately to salt water or spend one or more years in a river or lake before migrating. Migrations in the ocean are extensive during the feeding and growing phase, covering thousands of kilometres. After one or more years the maturing adults find their way back to their home river, returning to their ancestral breeding grounds to spawn. They die after spawning and the eggs in the gravel signify a new cycle. Upon this theme Pacific salmon have developed many variations, both between as well as within species. Pacific Salmon Life Histories provides detailed descriptions of the different life phases through which each of the seven species passes. Each chapter is written by a scientist who has spent years studying and observing a particular species of salmon. Some of the topics covered are geographic distribution, transplants, freshwater life, ocean life, development, growth, feeding, diet, migration, and spawning behaviour. The text is richly supplemented by numerous maps, illustrations, colour plates, and tables and there is a detailed general index, as well as a useful geographical index.
Where does the salmon we eat come from? A salmon’s life starts as an egg, and the journey only gets more exciting from there! Readers are able to follow along with the many stages of a salmon’s life cycle thanks to engaging text that breaks down this essential biology topic in a clear and concise way. Helpful fact boxes provide additional information about this popular fish. These important facts are presented alongside vibrant, full-color photographs of salmon at every stage of their life cycle and diagrams that invite readers to compare and contrast a person’s life cycle and a salmon’s.
The Behavior and Ecology of Pacific Salmon and Trout explains the patterns of mate choice, the competition for nest sites, and the fate of the salmon after their death. It describes the lives of offspring during the months they spend incubating in gravel, growing in fresh water, and migrating out to sea to mature. This thorough, up-to-date survey should be on the shelf of everyone with a professional or personal interest in Pacific salmon and trout. Written in a technically accurate but engaging style, it will appeal to a wide range of readers, including students, anglers, biologists, conservationists, legislators, and armchair naturalists.
The kokanee salmon is a land locked sockeye salmon. The story is about the kokanee salmon’s life cycle from being laid as an egg in a freshwater stream to returning to that same stream four years later as an adult spawner. The salmon like a certain habitat to lay their eggs. The temperature of the water, water flow, size of rocks in which they build their redds. The book also explains how they choose their mate, lay the eggs, fertilize the eggs and how they protect them from predators. The salmon choose the stream where they were laid as salmon eggs and how they grow in the stream to hatch in the spring to return to the lake to live for about four years
One fall day, Kate goes with her father, a fish biologist, to the river where he works -- a river in the Pacific rain forest -- the "salmon forest," as he calls it. Together they watch the sockeye salmon returning to the river to spawn, and witness a bear scooping up a salmon. Next, Kate and her dad run into a Native boy named Brett and his family fishing at a pool in the river. From her adventures, Kate discovers how the forest and the salmon need each other and why the forest is called the salmon forest. David Suzuki and Sarah Ellis's charming and informative text and Sheena Lott's watercolors magically evoke the spirit and mystery of the West Coast rain forest.