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    U. S. Fish & Wildlife Service

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    Produced ByU.S. Fish and Wildlife ServicePacific Region

    Illustrations by Gary Whitley

    Special thanks to the Sacramento Fish and Wildlife Offices

    Central Valley Improvement Act Division for their assistance with this project.

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    Male and femalsteelhead

    S almon are fish that live part of

    their lives in fresh water, and partin the ocean. They hatch in a stream,

    live there for several months, and thenswim to the sea, where they grow up. Thenthey migrate back to the streams wherethey were born, to lay their eggs.

    Five kinds of salmon live in rivers along thePacific Coast: the chinook(or king) salmon,the coho(or silver) salmon, the sockeye,pink(or humpback), and chum(or dog)salmon. Chinook are the biggest. Some can

    weigh over 100 pounds! Pink salmon arethe smallest, at 3 to 5 pounds.

    Steelheadare a kind of rainbow trout thatmigrate to the sea, like salmon. They areslimmer than salmon, and their tail finshave a more square shape.

    Male and femalechinook salmon

    a Salmon?What Is

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    H ave you ever visited another

    city, and noticed that the waterthere tastes different from the

    water at home? Salmon can tellthe difference between water fromdifferent places too! Young salmonmemorize the smell of their homestream before they migrate to the sea.When they are ready to return to freshwater, they follow the smell home.

    As the salmon migrate from the oceanto their home streams, their colorand shape changes. Males get hookedjaws with sharp teeth. In some species,their backs get humps. Both malesand females change color.

    Migration

    For Salmon,Fat isWhere Its AtWhen theyre living in the ocean,salmon eat a lot to store up plenty oThis fat is the fuel they need to getheir spawning grounds. Once salmenter freshwater, they stop eating.

    So a salmon is a lot like a car that mmake a long trip on one tank of gasIf anything delays the salmon, they use up their fuel too soon and nohave enough to make it home.

    Salmon Follow Their Senses!

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    id you know that salmon

    build nests? But instead of sticks, their nests are madeof gravel.

    The female digs her nest by swishingher tail up and down to loosen gravel from

    the streambed. After she lays her eggs, she coversthe nest with more gravel. The gravel protects theeggs from hungry trout and birds, but also hasplenty of spaces for water to run through.

    A big female chinook can lay over 7000 bright red,pea-sized eggs!

    hile the female salmon is building her nest, the male is busy chasing off all other males. He also does a courtship dance:

    he quivers and swims back and forth over the females back.When the female is ready to lay her eggs, he moves alongside her andfertilizes them. This is called spawning.All salmon, and most steelhead,die after they spawn.

    SpawningBuilding a Nest

    D

    W

    Fighting male

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    Hatching

    L ate in the winter, the baby salmon hatch. They are weird looking, with huge eyes and a pouch full of egg yolk attached to their bellies. You can see their hearts pumping through their transparent skin!For a few weeks they stay hidden in the gravel, living off their egg yolk.As the yolk gets used up, the pouch shrinks and then disappears.Scientists call this buttoning up.

    Up

    O nce the yolk is gone, the baby salmon, called fry,get hungry, and leave their gravel nests. They will eat anything that floats by, but insects are their favorite! Chum, pink, and sockeye fry migrate tothe sea soon after leaving the nest, but young chinook salmon, cohosalmon, and steelhead spend 4 to 18 months living in streams.

    Growing

    18 months

    1 day

    10 weeks

    6 months

    As the fry usesup its yolk,its bellybuttons up.

    Actual Size

    Newly hatchedsalmon

    Egg

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    StreamLife in the

    NeedTrees?Why Do Salmon

    T rees provide people

    with wood for our houses, paper for ourbooks, and good things toeat, like nuts and fruit. Butdid you know that trees arejust as important to salmon?

    Trees help keep water clean.They hold the soil and keeprain from washing it intorivers. Their roots absorbwater, helping to preventfloods. Their shade keeps

    water from getting too hot inthe summer. Their leavesprovide food for insects thatare eaten by salmon fry.And, when old trees fall intostreams, they create safehiding places for the fry.

    Astream is a much

    safer place for a young salmon than

    the sea, but there are stillmany challenges. Birds,frogs, mammals, and otherfish eat salmon fry. Floodscan wash fry out of streamsand into the big rivers beforethey are ready to migrate.

    People also can createproblems for salmon fry.Our dams change theamount of water that flowsin streams and rivers.

    Sometimes there may be toomuch water, and sometimesthere may not be enough.In summer, streams mayeven dry up completely.When you conserve wateryou may be helping a youngsalmon survive!

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    Pacific Salmon

    Steelhead

    Pink

    Chum

    Sockeye

    Chinook

    Coho

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    I n spring, the salmon fry become restless. They turn silvery in color and lose their spots. As snow meltsin the mountains and streams run faster,they begin swimming to the sea.Now they are called smolts.

    The journey is a dangerous one. Some

    smolts are killed going through dams.Many more become dizzy and confusedeasy prey for predators such as gulls,striped bass, and pikeminnows waiting onthe other side of the dams. Other smoltsget sucked out of the river and into canalsthat carry water to our crops.

    Finally the smolts arrive in an estuary,where a river meets the sea and salt

    water mixes with fresh. Here, the younsalmon adapt to salt water before theyenter the ocean. Estuaries are rich infood, and the young salmon eat as muas they can. The bigger they can getbefore they enter the ocean, the bettertheir chances of survival.

    Journey to theSea

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    O

    SeaLife in the Discovering Secrets

    of Salmon

    nce they enter the sea, some salmon, like coho, stay close to shore, while others,

    like spring chinook, may swim 2,000miles out to sea. While they are living in the sea,salmon are close to the top of the food chain.They eat squid, shrimp, and small fish, likeherring. Their main predators are sea lions andkiller whales. When they are ready to spawn,they return to the freshwater stream of their birth.

    ow long do salmon live in streams? What do they eat? Who eats them? Where do they go in the ocean and how long do they stay

    there? How many survive to adulthood? These are some of thequestions that scientists try to answer. When we know what salmon need,we can help them better.

    One way we learn about salmon is by tagging them. Some hatchery fish aregiven coded wire tags.A special machine is used to put a tag in the fishssnout. When the fish is caught as an adult, the tag is removed and read

    under a microscope. The pattern of lines on the tag tells when and wherethe fish was released.

    Salmon also get check-ups by scientists using special live traps calledscrew traps.These traps (which look like space capsules!) are placed inrivers to catch passing salmon. Scientists study the salmon, and then returnthem to the water. Ocean and estuary check-ups are done using netswhich trail behind boats.

    Taggingsalmon fry

    Screw trap

    H

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    Trouble!Salmon In

    oday, many kinds of salmon, and steelhead, are disappearing. Some have even been listed as endangered species. Salmon are in trouble mostly because their habitats the placeswhere they live are in trouble.

    Some rivers have been blocked by dams. Dams have helped people byproviding us with electricity and a way to store water. But dams have

    been hard on salmon. Some dams block salmon from getting to riverswhere they used to spawn. Gravel that salmon need to build nests getsstuck behind these dams.

    Other dams have turned rivers into huge lakes perfect habitat forpredatory fish. Without strong currents, young salmon have to workharder to swim to the sea. Salmon also use up a lot of energy as they tryto find their way past the dams.

    Other rivers are too warm, muddy, or polluted for salmon to use.When forests are cut or burned down, or too many cattle trample the ground,soil washes into rivers. The soil covers up salmon nests, and the eggs die.The water becomes warmer and muddier. Salmon fry get sick more easily.If the temperature rises above 77 degrees, they die.

    Polluted water, which runs into rivers from places where people live and work,can contain chemicals which hurt or kill salmon.

    T

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    Today, rivers in the West arecontrolled by people. In dryplaces, aqueducts and irrigationditches take water from riversand send it to cities and farms.Sometimes there may not beenough water left over for fish.

    Its only been recently that peoplerealized they must conserve water,and set some aside for fish.We also need to help fish getsafely past the obstacles we havecreated. Here are some thingspeople are doing to help salmon!

    We can help make warm,muddy streams cool and clearagain, by planting new treesand putting up fences to keepcattle from trampling streambanks.

    We can put screens over places whepeople take water from streams, so thfish will not be pulled out of streamsand end up in dead-end canals.

    SalmonHelping the

    We can build fish ladders,

    which look like big,watery stair steps, to helpsalmon swim over thedams. We can place newgravel below dams, so thatthere there is plenty ofgravel for the salmon tobuild their nests.

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    HatcheriesAlsoHelp Salmon

    F

    Why Do WeNeed Salmon?

    ish hatcheries help make up for spawning habitat that has been lost. Adult salmon are caught and spawned at the hatchery. Hatchery workers put the eggs into plastic trays. Cold, clean water runs throughthe trays. When the salmon fry hatch, they are put into concrete pondscalled raceways. People feed the fry until they are ready to migrate to thesea. But once they have been released, the young salmon must survivewithout any help, just like wild salmon do.

    Salmon are part of ahealthy ecosystem.Many animals eatsalmon: bears, eagles,sea lions, killer whales,and more. When salmonnumbers decrease, theseanimals do also.

    Some people depend onsalmon for their jobs:commercial fishers;fishing guides;people who makefishing gear and boats;and people who

    work in canneriesand fish markets.

    Salmon are an important paof the culture and livelihooof many Indian people.

    Feeding fryin raceways

    Releasingsalmonsmolts intostream

    Many people enjoywatching salmonas they migrateupstream and spawn.

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    Salmon Activity PageWhat Can I Do to Help Salmon?

    Unscramble the words in ( ) to find out!

    Conserve __________(ertwa) and____________ (celeyticirt).If you use less, there will be more water for salmon.

    Recycle and reuse paper. Saving _________ (seret)will help save salmon.

    Volunteer to help ____________(trerose) streams

    by planting trees.Dont dump oil, antifreeze, or other chemicals into street drains.Many drains empty into __________(siverr)!

    Talk to your ___________(endsfri) and ________ (rentspa) about salmonand what they can do to help.

    Word Search

    There are 20 salmon words hidden in this puzzle. Can you find them all?

    salmonsteelheadchinookcohopinkchumsockeyesnout

    gravelspawn

    frysmoltsestuaryhabitathatcheryrestorefood chainlife cycle

    predatorsmigration

    M Y E T Y M F S H O

    O

    O

    O

    O

    O

    O

    O O

    O

    OO

    O

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    M

    M

    M

    MM

    M

    M

    EE

    EEE

    EE

    EE

    E

    E

    E

    EE

    E

    E

    T

    TTTT

    T

    T

    TT

    T

    T

    T

    T

    Y

    Y

    Y

    YY

    S

    S

    SS

    S

    SS

    S

    S S S

    SS

    S

    SS

    S S

    L

    NN

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    N

    N

    N

    N

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    L

    L

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    L

    L

    L

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    AA

    A

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    AA

    A

    A

    AA

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    I

    R

    R

    RR

    R

    R R

    RR

    R

    C

    C

    CCC

    C

    C

    W

    W

    W W

    W

    WW

    H

    H

    HHH

    H

    H

    H

    U

    U

    U

    U

    K

    K

    K

    K

    K

    K

    K

    I

    I

    I

    II

    II

    I

    G

    F

    F

    F

    F

    P

    P

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    P

    P

    D

    D

    DD

    G

    G

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    G

    J

    Z

    Z

    V

    V

    B

    B

    Where Can I Go to See Salmon?Salmon may be comingto a river or fish hatcherynear you! Here are someplaces in California,Oregon, Washington, andIdaho where you can seesalmon and steelhead.The best months to seesalmon are July throughOctober in Oregon,Washington, and Idaho;and October throughFebruary in California.Steelhead arrive later,December through March.Exact dates may vary,so call ahead beforeplanning your visit.

    For more information onNational Fish Hatcheriesand salmon viewing, call:

    California:Coleman NationalFish Hatchery530/365-8622

    Oregon, Washington,and Idaho:Outreach Specialist, FisheriesU.S. Fish and Wildlife Service503/231-6874

    State Fish Hatcheries:California: 916/653-6194

    Oregon: 503/872-5252 x .2112Washington: 360/902-2661Idaho: 208/334-3791

    Visit Us on the Web!For more information about seeingsalmon and other fish and wildlife inthe Pacific Region, visit the U. S. Fishand Wildlife Service on the Web athttp:/www.r1.fws.govand click onVisitor Directory.

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    Coho Fry Chinook Fry

    Sea-run Chinook

    Spawning Chinook

    Spawning Pink

    Spawning Sockeye

    Spawning Chum

    Spawning Steelhead