Friday, May 31, 2013

Why so much variation?


Yesterday we said that the Reds coming in were 4 - 7 pounds.

Why so variable?
It makes no sense if what you typically hear is correct:
that they spend 4 years out at sea before returning.
If so, it must be that some went off to better feeding areas while out at sea.

But it turns out, it is not so simple.

Red salmon stay 2 - 4 years out at sea (not the often quoted 4).
So, I guess some of the small ones might be the young ones.

Anyway, here are pictures. No its not an aquarium somewhere,
It was taken by just down form the  dandelions in the header pic of this blog,
at high tide, at the shallow part of the marina,
during Crabfest, this past weekend.


Pardon the reflection of the clouds;
We just snapped it with the I-Phone and no polarizing filter.



Look "through" those clouds and here you'll see
dozens of 5 inch salmon, happily swimming pass by a starfish.



Those little fish are the "smolt",
which will stay around  shallow protected bay waters for a year before heading out to sea.
Then return about this time in 2-4 years.
Yes, there is some variation:
a real cold winter's water run-off makes them swim up the rivers a little later.

Anyway, I really wish I was an elementary school kid again.
Because, here in Kodiak, I think every kid can tell you the different salmon's life cycle.

For us "late arrivals" to the island,
we just have to search the Internet,


and look up articles like this:

http://www.fishex.com/seafood/salmon/salmon-life-cycles.html#Parr

But to get more accurate information, we must look up the particular type of salmon, instead of this "average" information.
.

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