[Text: Sundayhao from the species calendar]
"Overseas fish come to hundreds of millions of floats, and the countercurrent square mouth is the head of the trout [pánɡ]. To this day, there are red marks on the abdomen, and it was said that the lonely east entered the royal boat. This poem was published in the book "Longcheng Old News" published by the Heilongjiang Newspaper in the 8th year of the Republic of China, which was written by modern medical expert Zhu Luzhong based on the Description of Salmon on Marijuana in the Qing Dynasty's Western Qing Dynasty's "Heilongjiang Waiji". The gist of the poem is: there are hundreds of millions of cannabis salmon from overseas, looking like a bighead fish (bighead carp), competing to go up the river; there are still red marks on the abdomen, because when The Tang King Li Shimin was on the Eastern Crusade, the boat crossed the black water, and the number of cannabis salmon migrating across the river was too much, which disturbed the wang driver and was beaten off the boat by the soldiers with sticks.
The salmon swimming back in the river, the far right of the picture above is the female, and the male with the "red mark" on the abdomen behind it is the male. See watermark for image source
Of course, the latter story is just a good legend to hear, but the record of salmon scrambling to spawn in the poem is very vivid. The cannabis salmon mentioned in the poem is most likely the fine-scaled salmon Oncorhynchus gorbuscha or cannabis salmon O. keta。 The protagonist of our story today is their relative in North America, the large-scaled salmon O. tshawytscha。
Large scaled salmon. Image: offthehooktaxidermy.com
<h1>King of salmon, salmon with large scales</h1>
Salmoni, belonging to the salmoniforms salmonidae salmone genus Oncorhynchus. Male salmon will change shape during the river migration, and the upper and lower jaws will change into the shape of hooks. The genus name Oncorhynchus is derived from the Greek words onkos (hook) and rynchos (nose), also known in Taiwan as the genus Hookfish.
Male large-scaled salmon during river migration. Image: fishbase.org
Salmon is found mainly in the North Pacific, east to the Yukon River in Alaska, south to the Sacramento River in Central California, and west to the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia and northern Japan. In fact, other fish in the genus Salmon are also distributed in the North Pacific, so salmon are also known as Pacific salmon.
Distribution of salmon with large scales. Image: aquamaps.org
The large-scale salmon is the largest of more than a dozen Species of Pacific salmon, reaching a total length of up to 150 cm and weighing more than 60 kg. As the largest salmon, the large-scaled salmon certainly cannot escape the fate of being called king by humans, and is also known as "King salmon".
A giant large-scaled salmon that was caught. Image: animal.memozee.com
<h1>The little one left home for the rest of his life</h1>
The story of salmon begins with their birth. Their broodstock die shortly after spawning in gravel heaps in rivers, leaving only the fertilized salmon eggs to hatch slowly at water temperatures of 4 to 16°C, with a shorter incubation time at a higher temperature. Newly hatched salmon stay in the gravel pile where they are born for a month or more, and when they are large enough, they will leave their birthplace and swim downstream of the river; some juveniles will immediately descend the river, and others will stay in freshwater for 2 to 12 months before swimming to the sea.
Juvenile of salmon. Image: Eiko Jones Photography
When salmon swim to the sea, their body color turns to shiny silver, and their form and behavior change. They began to feed on some of the ocean's fish, crustaceans and invertebrates, and embarked on a long fattening journey. Usually, after living in the sea for 4 to 5 years, when the salmon is sexually mature, it has one last thing to do: go home — back to the river where you were first born and give birth to your own offspring. Therefore, the salmon in the sea gathered together and swam like the returning army of the Spring Festival to the river of birth.
Assemble salmon ready for migration. See watermark for image source
They stop feeding during migration, and their body color changes from silver to dark gray to red or purple. The male's upper and lower jaws became hook-shaped. Going up against the current back to the birthplace of the upper reaches of the river means sometimes crossing obstacles such as waterfalls. In this regard, salmon is not worried. Their powerful tail fins will hit the water hard, jump out of the water with their super high swimming speed, and jump over obstacles. Salmon can jump to heights of up to 2 meters.
Leaping obstacles to the large scaled salmon. See watermark for image source
Crossing many obstacles along the way, salmon are finally on their way to the end of their journey, the end of their lives, their birthplace. At this time, the color of salmon has become bright red, which means that they are ready to spawn. The males fight each other to seize the vantage point behind the females. The females dig a shallow groove in the gravel-covered channel to serve as a nest for laying eggs. After making these preparations, the male fish clings to the female, stimulating the female to lay eggs, and the male also releases his sperm while the female lays eggs, so that the eggs are fertilized. Unlike Atlantic salmon, a distant relative who can breed multiple times from their birthplace to the ocean, salmon can only reproduce once in a lifetime, and all salmon that arrive at spawning grounds will end their lives at their birthplace.
Large scaled salmon that died on the river beach. Image: stockpix.com
As a migratory fish, salmon grow in rivers, grow in the sea, and when they mature, they return to the stream where they were born, lay eggs and die. Generation after generation, cycle after cycle. The proverb "Back and forth between life and death" and "cannabis salmon love hometown, grow up in the sea and die back to the river" is a summary of the unique life history of cannabis salmon.
<h1>A feast in nature</h1>
The migration of salmon is a major event in nature. Their fat flesh not only stirs the taste buds of humans, but also becomes a delicacy sought after by many animals. Every season when the salmon migration is marijuana, predators such as killer whales, northern sea lions, Pacific porbeaks, and bald eagles come from all directions to the route of the salmon migration, waiting for the opportunity to wait in ambush. These top hunters in nature are all magical, taking advantage of the opportunity of the salmon migration of marijuana to feast on a full meal. Although most of the salmon are eaten before they reach the mouth of the river, the number of salmon that escapes from the tiger's mouth is still considerable.
A bald eagle is warning other bald eagles to stay away from the salmon it caught. See watermark for image source
The salmon that smoothly entered the river could not breathe a sigh of relief, and ahead, the brown bear had been waiting for a long time. Brown bears that have finished hibernating are in dire need of energy, and salmon is the best source of energy in front of them. Some experienced brown bears will wait by the cascade for the jumping salmon to be delivered to their mouths. Until the next hibernation, brown bears will catch salmon or eat the carcasses of broodstock to reserve their energy for the winter.
Brown bears preying on salmon. See watermark for image source
That's right, until the salmon reach the spawning ground and finally spawn smoothly, this feast of nature is not over. Salmon eggs are treated as a plate meal by small black-headed gulls. Broodstock die after spawning, and the spawning grounds become a haven for scavengers, and animals such as brown bears, wolves, crows, and bald eagles will continue to fill their stomachs with the carcasses of these salmon.
Wild wolves are eating the carcasses of salmon. Image: cbc.ca
Even if the carcasses of salmon decay, forests deep in the continent and at the headwaters of rivers absorb the nutrients they bring back from the ocean and thrive. Throughout his life at sea and on land, salmon has benefited many other creatures.
The carcass of the decomposing marijuana turned into spring mud. Image: Northwest Nature Notes
<h1>Large scaled salmon is also "salmon"</h1>
Salmon is also called chinook salmon. What does this have to do with the Norwegian salmon we often hear about? Simply put, Atlantic salmon were the first fish to be called salmon. The Pacific salmon (salmon), which was discovered by European colonists who later arrived in the New World, is also known as so-and-so salmon because of its similar appearance and the same migratory habits as the Atlantic salmon.
The earliest salmon: the Atlantic salmon Salmo salar. Image: fishesofaustralia.net.au
The salmon was first discovered and described by the German physician, naturalist and taxonomist Walbaum, who grouped the salmon and atlantic salmon into the same genus. Later taxonomists reclassified them to a new genus, the genus Salmon (Salmon spp.), based on the fact that their upper and lower jaws became hooks during the migration of Pacific salmon.
Freshly hatched large scaled salmon. Image: American Fisheries Society
Let's not argue who is the orthodox "salmon", and let's compete with the taste. As the largest and most migratory of the Pacific salmon, the salmon has a very high fat ratio, which gives it a more delicate taste and is even better than farmed Atlantic salmon. Whether it is sashimi, charcoal grilled, or fried, it is all excellent. In fact, many ways to eat salmon are mentioned in the Atlantic salmon written by The Salmon Teacher< poke here to see the >, and here are some of the traditional ways of eating salmon that our people have for salmon.
Charcoal grilled salmon. Image: ChicagoNow
Pacific salmon distributed in china have Masu cannabis salmon O. masou, hemp salmon O. keta and fine-scaled hemp salmon O. gorbuscha。 They are mainly distributed in the northeast Heilongjiang, Ussuri River, Songhua River and even Tumen River and other river systems. Because the estuaries of these rivers are not in our country, the quality of the fish is not good when we fish. But that doesn't affect people's enthusiasm for eating them. The flesh of the salmon is brightly colored and rich in oil, and the unique habits make it have the flavors of both river and marine fish. A single piece of salmon can even be made into a table of fish feasts, such as steamed salmon, dried fried salmon pieces, scallion grilled salmon segments and so on.
Steamed salmon. Image: Pop and Wok
In addition to hemp salmon meat, the highest economic value of cannabis salmon is cannabis salmon roe. In this regard, various chronicles have detailed records or descriptions. Or the cloud is "as big as maize (that is, corn)", or the cloud is "as big as a sycamore", or the cloud is "as bright red as agate". Hemp salmon roe is rich in nutrients, and the caviar is even more unique.
Caviar sushi, this African, do you still have enough physical strength? Image: sh.xdf.cn
In addition to fresh food, salmon can also be air-dried and processed into a fish [zhǎ] to increase the time it takes to eat salmon. The preparation method is usually to marinate it with salt for a period of time, then dry it in a ventilated and sunny place, and when you want to eat it, you can cut it and steam it with water.
Dried salmon. Image: Wikimedia commons
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