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 Throughout history no fish has facinated, inspired or challenged mankind as the Atlantic salmon. Etchings of salmon appear among 20,000-year-old artifacts of Cro-Magnon man. It's scientific designation, Salmo salar, stems from the term "salio" - the leaper - bestowed by Roman legions about 100 BC. Izaak Walton crowned it the "King of Freshwater Fish" in his 17th century classic, The Compleat Angler. The Atlantic Salmon is not related to the six species of Pacific salmon, which are of the genus Oncorhynchus. Salmo salar's closest relative is the brown trout (Salmo trutta). On average, an adult Atlantic salmon will weigh 2-10 Kg (1 Kg = 2.2 lbs., 2.54 cm = 1") and measure 50-100 cm in length, but some will grow to remarkable size. A record 38 Kg fish was netted in Ireland in 1982. The largest Atlantic salmon angled in North America was 25 Kg, landed on Québec's Grand Cascapedia River in 1939, while a female angler landed a 29 Kg salmon while fishing the Tay River in Scotland, the record salmon for all of Britain. A 10 Kg landlocked salmon was angled in Maine in 1907. For centuries, annual migrations of Atlantic salmon provided commerce, food and sport in the British Isles, Europe, Scandinavia and northeaster North America. The Atlantic salmon was a common and prolific fish in the rivers of colonial New England and Eastern Canada. great numbers were netted or speared for export, food and even field fertilizer. But beginning in the 1600's, the pressures of dam constructions, over-fishing and pollution caused the decline or disappearance of salmon runs across much of its historic range. Important spawning beds were lost to the Atlantic salmon when rivers were dammed. Those salmon could reach were often polluted by effluent from indutries, which had sprung up during the Industrial Revolution. Today, restoration and enhancement programs are returning Atlantic salmon to many of these areas. The ocean life of the salmon is no less hazardous than the fresh water phrase. Millions of smolts leave there natal rivers each year never to return, despite the continuing decline in commercial harvest of salmon on the high seas. Scientists, with the help of devices and satellite images, are conducting research to find the answers to the effects of colder ocean temperatures and ocean pollution on the salmon and it's food supply. The Salmon's World Unlike most fish, which remain in a single location for life, the Atlantic salmon is a world travaller. It is an anadromous fish - one that spawns in fresh water but spends much of its life at sea. The Atlantic salmon's historic range encompassed the North Atlantic Ocean and its freshwater tributaries from Ungava Bay to Lake Ontario and southward to Connecticut in North America, from Russia's White Sea to Portugal on the European coast. Although many of these runs are now reduced or extinct, Atlantic salmon can still be found in the rivers of the British Isles, Ireland, Canada, the Faroe Islands, Finland, France, Iceland, Norway, Spain, Sweeden, the United States and Russia. |
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Main The Atlantic Salmon The Salmon Life Cycle The Fisheries Managing The Resource Aquaculture Brook Trout Hatchery Process Image Gallery | ||
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