salmon

Perhaps one of the most grisly sights I have ever seen was in late summer of '95, standing on the bank of the upper Nome River in Alaska. For as far as the eye can see, rotting salmon. The fish weren't dead yet, and they were rotting. You could see them in the stream, slowly swimming, their tails and fins barely connected to thier bodies. The beachs were covered with millions of them, littering the tranquil vista with death and a smell the likes of which I haven't experianced since. Bears wouldn't eat them, so the flies would float like clouds near the banks of the river. A thousands tons of prize Alaskan Silver Salmon, rotting in the sun.

Similar to its Pacific cousins, species of Atlantic Salmon are spawned in gravel beds near the headwaters of streams, swim down to the Atlantic, live there several years growing big, then swim back again to spawn.

Unlike Pacific salmon, however, Atlantic salmon usually survive the experience of returning home to spawn, and swim back down to the ocean, and return to spawn again and again. The difference certainly derives from the more rugged terrain of the West Coast of North America, and thus the greater number of obstacles that Pacific Salmon have to surmount while fulfilling their destiny. It remains to be seen whether death after one spawning is an evolutionary adaptation, or the fish simply hitting physical limitations, being too beaten up after their trip upriver.

Unfortunately for the Atlantic Salmon, their yearly survival makes the entire population more sensitive to overfishing: each Atlantic Salmon caught represents a greater number of potential descendants lost than for a Pacific salmon. Overfishing, coupled with dams blocking spawning routes, pollution of the rivers fish must traverse, and, ironically, diseases and genetic nondiversity brought by escaped farmed salmon, wild Atlantic Salmon reached critically low levels in the 1990's.

The Atlantic Salmon is on the Endangered Species List in the United States, and Canadian salmon fishing is limited to one Inuit community on Ungava Bay. The countries surrounding the North Atlantic (the European Union, Norway, Denmark (thus the Faeroe Islands and Greenland), Iceland, Russia, Canada, and the United States) formed NASCO, the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organisation in order to find ways to restore salmon populations. Many activist NGOs (such as the WWF) doubt NASCO's effectiveness, since the EU has not yet limited the salmon fishery in the British Isles.

Membership of NASCO from
http://www.nasco.org.uk

Also see
http://www.asf.ca/Communications/june00/endnasco.html
http://www.asf.ca/Nasco/nasco2001/index.html

The salmon is a fish common to the rivers of Ireland and Great Britain. As such, it has a special place in Insular Celtic mythology.

The salmon is regarded as a symbol of wisdom, difficult to gain. In Irish myth, the salmon of wisdom swims in the well of Nechtan, eating nuts the nine hazel trees, which fell into the well. Boann, wife of Nechtan and lover of the Dagda, attempted to drink from the well, but the well burst and became the river Boyne, named for the goddess. The salmon then swam in the river, but could only be caught by the most worthy.

This most worthy turned out to be Demne, who would later be named Finn Mac Cumhail because of the wisdom he recieved from fish. When the fish was caught, Demne took it to his master, Fintan. As Demne cooked it for his master, some grease splattered onto his thumb. He then recieved the wisdom of the salmon. A similar story is found in Hanes Taliesin, where the young Gwion Bach finds awen after sticking his burned thumb in his mouth; he then sought to escape from Cerridwen by turning into a salmon.

Elsewhere, in The Mabinogion, the Salmon of Llyn Llyw is the oldest animal in the world, and must be found by King Arthur in order to set Mabon ap Modron free, for only the salmon knows where Mabon is imprisoned. In other words, the oldest creature knows where the god of light is hidden. Wisdom is the way to enlightenment.

Finally, as said before, the salmon is a favorite food in Ireland, due to its abundance (and it just tastes good, too).

Salm"on (?), n.; pl. Salmons (#) or (collectively) Salmon. [OE. saumoun, salmon, F. saumon, fr. L. salmo, salmonis perhaps from salire to leap. Cf. Sally, v.]

1. Zool.

Any one of several species of fishes of the genus Salmo and allied genera. The common salmon (Salmo salar) of Northern Europe and Eastern North America, and the California salmon, or quinnat, are the most important species. They are extensively preserved for food. See Quinnat.

The salmons ascend rivers and penetrate to their head streams to spawn. They are remarkably strong fishes, and will even leap over considerable falls which lie in the way of their progress. The common salmon has been known to grow to the weight of seventy-five pounds; more generally it is from fifteen to twenty-five pounds. Young salmon are called parr, peal, smolt, and grilse. Among the true salmons are: Black salmon, or Lake salmon, the namaycush. -- Dog salmon, a salmon of Western North America (Oncorhynchus keta). -- Humpbacked salmon, a Pacific-coast salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha). -- King salmon, the quinnat. -- Landlocked salmon, a variety of the common salmon (var. Sebago), long confined in certain lakes in consequence of obstructions that prevented it from returning to the sea. This last is called also dwarf salmon.

Among fishes of other families which are locally and erroneously called salmon are: the pike perch, called jack salmon; the spotted, or southern, squeteague; the cabrilla, called kelp salmon; young pollock, called sea salmon; and the California yellowtail.

2.

A reddish yellow or orange color, like the flesh of the salmon.

Salmon berry Bot., a large red raspberry growing from Alaska to California, the fruit of the Rubus Nutkanus. -- Salmon killer Zool., a stickleback (Gasterosteus cataphractus) of Western North America and Northern Asia. -- Salmon ladder, salmon stair. See Fish ladder, under Fish. -- Salmon peel, a young salmon. -- Salmon pipe, a certain device for catching salmon. Crabb. -- Salmon trout. Zool. (a) The European sea trout (Salmo trutta). It resembles the salmon, but is smaller, and has smaller and more numerous scales. (b) The American namaycush. (c) A name that is also applied locally to the adult black spotted trout (Salmo purpuratus), and to the steel head and other large trout of the Pacific coast.

© Webster 1913.

Salm"on, a.

Of a reddish yellow or orange color, like that of the flesh of the salmon.

© Webster 1913.