Salmon Run: Oct 13 2010

October 13, 2010
Today I went to Roderick Haig-Brown Provincial Park to see the salmon run. It's a good 5 hour drive from Vancouver, and getting there and back within 1 day was really tiring! But this year's salmon run is the largest one in the last century, and my mom insisted on going. We got there at around noon, and the first thing I saw was a couple of guys shoveling dead fish along the shore...


Not exactly what I had expected to see, but apparently a lot of salmon don't make it up the river. They either get too tired or beat up by the rocks to continue swimming upstream. As they swim against the current, their bodies turn bright red while their heads and tails turn green.


The male salmon protects the female as she gets ready to lay her eggs. He sticks his head up and opens his jaws to show his sharp teeth.


After the female lays her eggs, the male fertilizes them with his sperm.


I just noticed there's a dead fish right beside the salmon eggs in my picture. Birth and death in one picture... How interesting...

No comments:

Powered by Blogger.