Eddie Jones, 12, of Courtenay, British Columbia, Canada, for his question:
HOW DOES THE SALMON RETURN TO THE PLACE OF HIS BIRTH?
Commercial fishermen usually look for the salmon just as he leaves the ocean and is ready to journey to his mating grounds upstream. This is the time to catch him since he loses flavor and color when he leaves the sea. The fish are caught in nets in Oregon, Washington, Alaska and the Canadian province of British Columbia. Most salmon is canned, although some of it is sold fresh, frozen or smoked.
There are seven species of salmon: the Atlantic, cherry, Chinook, chum, coho, pink and sockeye. All except the Atlantic salmon live in the Pacific Ocean. The largest species is the Chinook, which is also known as the blackmouth, king, quinnat, spring, tule or tyee salmon. He grows three feet long and weighs about 22 pounds.
Salmon are born in fresh water, but they soon head for the ocean where they spend most of their lives. Then, when they are older, they return to the freshwater streams of their birth to spawn.
Zoologists know that most salmon return to the very river where they were born, even though they may spend from six months to five years in the ocean and travel thousands of miles from the mouth of their river.
How do salmon know to make the return trip? Scientists think they navigate in the ocean by somehow sensing the magnetic field of the earth and the currents of the sea. After reaching the ocean, the salmon seems to remember the odor of his home stream and he follows this special scent.
Salmon are famous for their fighting spirits. They battle rushing currents and leap across rapids and over 10 foot waterfalls. Their journey often stretches 2,000 miles.
Once they reach the quiet fresh water, the female salmon lays her eggs in the bed of a shallow, rippling stream. As the male salmon stands guard, the female turns on her side and digs a saucer shape nest in the gravel by swishing her tail back and forth. She then lays between 2,000 and 10,000 eggs and the male fertilizes them.
The gravel on the stream's bottom usually covers the salmon eggs where they remain for three or four months before they are hatched. Some types of young salmon leave the fresh water for the ocean immediately, while other species may stay in the fresh water for up to three years.
Only a small percentage of the young salmon reach the ocean. Birds and other fish eat them, and others die trying to swim through man made reservoirs.
Once in the ocean, the salmon will live on shrimp, squid and small fish. He'll travel thousands of miles until he starts back home again to mate. When he reaches the fresh water he stops eating and lives off the fat stored in his body.