#anadromous

[fish-facing-forward]

Oncorhynchus keta

Chum Salmon

Image source

Status: Least concern

Distribution: Widely found in the northern Pacific Ocean, migrates to freshwater for spawning.

[noaasanctuaries]

What a beautiful day for some fresh water near Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary! 

Did you know coho salmon are anadromous? That means they hatch in freshwater streams spending about a year there before migrating out to the ocean to feed and grow! They will return to the same stream areas to spawn later in life. (Photo: Adam Baus. Image description: A school of salmon swimming in a shallow stream.)

[streamdreamfishn-blog]

Jump splash snap fall ow ! #fishing #bcfishing #fishingbc #outdoors #wildlife #salmon #fish #trout #chum #chinook #coho #anadromous #searun #keepemwet #tightlines #bentrods #bcfishing #fishingbc #dawai #daiwa #shimano

[anthropocenesketchbook]

Pacific lamprey, Entosphenus tridentatus.  Watching lamprey move up a gradient or over a barrier is very cool: rather than swim, they use suction to grab the rocks with their mouths and inch upwards that way.  The Fish and Wildlife service has a great video showing lamprey climbing.

[fish-facing-forward]

Oncorhynchus keta

Chum Salmon

Image source

Status: Least concern

Distribution: Widely found in the northern Pacific Ocean, migrates to freshwater for spawning.

[anthropocenesketchbook]

Pacific lamprey, Entosphenus tridentatus.

[freshwaterfishfactswithfin]

Chum Salmon

I know you're probs like, "Why is this lady, who says she's posting freshwater fish facts, only posted things that are either not exclusively freshwater or aren't fish? Is she even a freshwater biologist? In fact, this species isn't even lotic; it's anadromous! Why on earth is she posting it during lotic oct?", and I agree. But I legitimately am actually just telling you about whatevs species I feel like. Typically, those probs act will be freshwater fish, but I know the rlly popular fish are what ppl wanna hear about.

So, the chum salmon! As pretty obvi, it's a salmonid, meaning it's a ray-finned fish and all that. (If sm1 asks, I'll post a whole thing about salmonids because most fish you know about are probs salmonids.) The name actually comes from the Chinook language, not from the word "chum"; in fact, it's one of the more common local fishing salmon species because commercial fisheries avoid it due to rlly low pricing. (The scientific name, Oncorhynchus Keta, is act from an Eastern Russia dialect too; it's an interesting species, y'know?)

They're salmonids, so they develop kypes (Those, like, hooks on the snouts of salmon during breeding season that every1 knows about.) Like most salmon, not salmonid, just salmon, they're anadromous, meaning they migrate up to lay eggs in freshwater, but live most of their life in the sea. They aren't particularly endangered, because again, commercial fisheries avoid them. (Though, if I remember correctly, a population of them was threatened for a bit.) In combination with ppl not wanting to eat smth called "chum", causing a lower commercial value, these fellers are pretty resilient to whirling disease. (That's a parasite that affects salmonids, might post about it eventually.)

[belovedsalmonrun]

I love that the way salmon are named (well their group) is ‘running upward’ that’s such a beautiful way to say they go upriver to spawn