Why Do Salmon Migrate?

Poetic Reflection on their Journey and Conservation

The nature of salmon persists despite dammed nurturing as they migrate whether or not they are connected to the ocean. Kokanee are landlocked sockeye salmon that use reservoirs above dams like a miniature ocean. (photos: Jason Ching)

Migration maintains tradition

Tails beat back the current of time to hold their lines as it flows past. Ancient bloodlines run from redds through riffles in streams to offshore eddies and back if they survive it all. Dammed, landlocked salmon swim upstream into tributaries feeding their reservoirs in genetic memory of rivers rolling to sea. Kokanee keep the traditions of wild Alaskan sockeye salmon as both display the same DNA in different ways like twins split at birth.

Tradition sustains us

Carcasses catalyze life as they break down, lending atoms to the living. Trees carry salmon skyward via veins to propel their growth and return the favor. Leaves shade streams to keep it cool, foliage seasonally falls to the water to promote aquatic insect growth, and some titans drop to create in-stream habitat while the increased sunlight boosts bugs that eat algae and then those that consume one another. The net effect is more growth borne from death that bridged mountains to the sea. Salmon snagged by human hands and beast paws also fuel growth by swimming on as absorbed nutrients.

Sustaining our gifts

Declining salmon and trout populations are symptoms of larger environmental problems from land to sea. Fish that we could lose first include Chinook salmon (top-left; Flylords media), steelhead (top-right; Paul Vecsei), Atlantic salmon (bottom-left; Chris Baraniuk), & brook trout (bottom right; Sean Landsman)

They are slipping out of our hands like gifts we forgot how to hold. Salmon and their relatives will go away individually if we let them. The risk of extinction continues for spring-run Chinook salmon and South Coast steelhead in California just as it does for Atlantic salmon and brook trout in New England. They indicate larger declines as freshwater biodiversity continues dropping in the shadow of the spotlight on ocean issues. We can help salmon and trout beat onward by supporting conservation groups striving to remove obsolete dams, place fish-friendly turbines in ones that provide hydropower, and keep sufficient water quality and quantity in the environment. These are ways that we can value the gifts that we have before losing them.